Finance Minister Miftah Ismail forecasted that Pakistan’s GDP would expand by 5 per cent to 6 per cent, and that the government would keep inflation under control, while speaking at the pre-budget conference on Tuesday, June 7.
The Finance minister expressed his ‘high confidence’ in the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and revealed that the government had developed a progressive fiscal budget with a deficit of less than 5 per cent, according to Express News.
“We had to make difficult decisions; it’s difficult for any prime minister to authorise such a hike in petrol costs, but we were losing money.” “Every month, we lost more than 120 billion rupees,” the minister said.
According to him, the PTI administration signed an IMF agreement that mandated the reduction of fuel subsidies.
Miftah claimed the administration has re-engaged with China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), among other countries, as part of the present government’s successful negotiations.
“Following a meeting between Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto and Chinese Prime Minister [Li Keqiang], China decided to re-roll their $2.4 billion programme. China has lowered its borrowing rate from 2.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent, saving the country money “Miftah said, “Roughly $23 million”.
He went on to say that the Saudis had agreed to increase Pakistan’s “oil line” and offer the country with a $100 million revolving credit.
According to Miftah, the current government inherited a country with the world’s third highest inflation rate, 20 million people living in poverty, and widespread unemployment.
He went on to say that the country’s debt payments had increased tremendously as a result of the amount of loans taken on by the PTI government.
Pakistan’s economic paradigm, according to the minister, is inherently faulty. “We enrich the wealthy,” he remarked.
The finance minister also spoke about one-time Rs2,000 assistance for 14 million families. The amount will be distributed in June at a cost of Rs28 billion to the government.
Aside from the 7.3 million BISP recipients, the package also covers 6.7 million households with poverty levels of less than 37.
According to Miftah, the country’s industry and consumers are heavily reliant on imports, causing the current account to be in deficit. He went on to say that Pakistan’s economy focuses on import substitution rather than export development, a paradigm that has been replicated in a number of developing countries.
Aside from textiles, Pakistan has no big exports because the agriculture sector is failing to remain productive.
