ISLAMABAD – Ambitious former finance minister Asad Umar benefited Pakistaneconomy with $18 billion in 8 months.
Finance Minister Asad Umar—who was sacked by Prime Minister Imran Khan onApril 18—had raised forex reserves by $9 billion from $8 billion to $17billion in just eight months of his tenure and that too without gettingloans from international lending agencies.
The former but ambitious finance minister also succeeded in shrinking oncewidening current account deficit (CAD) by considerable 29.5pc to $9.6billion in the first nine months of the Fiscal Year 2018-19. The same stoodat whooping $13.6 billion in the same period during previous fiscal year[2017-18].
The drop in CAD was witnessed owing to much-needed structural reform thatensued drop in imports and significant hike in remittances from abroad.
Read Top Stories
It is worth here to mention that financial analysts have repeatedly termedCAD sole reason behind Pakistan’s current economic quagmire.
At times when Pakistan was about to ink a bailout package agreement withInternational Monetary Fund on favorable terms, Asad Umar was sacked.
