KARACHI: Adviser to PM on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said on Friday the government had, so far, returned $10 billion worth of foreign loans.
Addressing a ceremony at the Pakistan Stock Exchange in Karachi, he said that some of these loans were not even acquired by the present government.
The finance adviser maintained that Pakistan’s economy was on an upward trajectory and that its performance was being acknowledged by all the major foreign financial institutions.
“Members of the Asian Development Bank reported to their board that Pakistan’s performance warrants the provision of special instruments,” he said.
Shaikh said that after a period of four years, portfolio investors had expressed their confidence in the country and invested in excess of $1 billion. He said that the foreign direct investment had witnessed a 87pc increase in the first five months of the current financial year as compared to the past year.
“All the investors, evaluators, analysts, agencies and organisations whose task it is to monitor the economies of countries, have all given Pakistan a thumbs up.