Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has said that even though “bad days” were ahead, Pakistan was heading in the right direction.
Giving an address at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the finance minister said that Pakistan was on the right track and by controlling imports for three months, our exports would receive a boost. However, he added that we might see bad days ahead.
He said that the budget deficit during the previous PML-N government remained at $1,600 billion whereas the PTI government had caused it to rise to $3,500 billion in its tenure. He also said that Pakistan’s foreign loans had increased by 80 percent and due to such increase in the budget deficit and loans, the economy of the country was impacted the most.
Miftah told the participants of the meeting that the present government was suffering due to PTI’s economic policies. He added that the government had to save the country from default and hence immediate and short-term measures were taken that were unwise in the long term.
The finance minister said that under the current economic conditions, the government had to literally beg other countries for money and that was “no fun”. He further added that in order to get long-term stability, there was a need of boosting the reserves of Pakistan.
