ISLMABAD – Addressing an event at the Pakistan Stock Exchange here, hesaid the market needed to be regulated but not over-regulated adding thatups and downs were common in businesses. Asserting that one should spendwithin their limits, Asad said, “I have to save Rs210 million Pakistanis.”
Talking about Pakistan approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF),he said, “This will be the last time the country seeks a bailout from theinternational lender. This will be the last IMF programme.”
“The media is portraying the country’s economy as collapsing but that isnot the case. No alarm bells are ringing,” he said, but went on to add thatthe financing gap this year was of $12 billion. “In the next seven to eightmonths, the US dollar will see a decrease of 26% to 27% against thePakistani rupee,” he said, adding, “Matters are coming under control”.
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“The current account deficit, which earlier rose from $2.5 billion to $18billion, has started to decrease,” the finance minister added. He furtherannounced that measures were being taken to improve the stock exchange andthere was an astounding growth in the stock market. “Doing business inPakistan has become very expensive…[and] the environment for investmentand business needs to be improved”. He said the government will work onimproving the capital market. He also said the government’s target was toincrease revenue.
