Finance Minister Ishaq Dar admits economic situation of Pakistan in slump

Karachi [Pakistan], December 30 (ANI): Despite acknowledging that there were problems with the economy, Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar assured investors that "there is no way Pakistan is going to default."

"We're in a tight position. We don't have USD 24bn in foreign exchange reserves that our (last) government left in 2016. But that's not my fault. It's the system's fault," Darr told investors at a ceremony to mark the listing of Pakistan's first developmental real estate investment trust scheme on the stock exchange, as per the Pakistan news agency.

Dar also criticised "pseudo-intellectuals" for bringing up the possibility of a sovereign default despite the fact that the nation paid up its USD 1 billion Islamic bonds earlier this month.

He said "There's no chance Pakistan is going to default" during his mainly retrograde speech delivered via video link.

Dar also criticised "pseudo-intellectuals" for bringing up the possibility of a sovereign default despite the fact that the nation paid up its USD 1 billion Islamic bonds earlier this month, as per Dawn newspaper.

Citing international experience, Pakistan's central bank in its annual report said that the countries that prioritise growth at the expense of the price and financial stability are not able to "sustain growth and have repeated boom-bust cycles followed by the financial crisis."

In the report on 'State of the Economy for the fiscal year FY22', the State Bank of Pakistan has estimated that growth in FY23 would be less than the low range set for the year, according to Dawn. It further said that the growth rate will remain lower than 3-4 per cent.

According to the SBP report, supply-side factors, like changes in the price of energy and food, can be caused by both domestic and international developments and can often be difficult to predict. The report said that inflation depends on the outlook for international commodity prices and exchange rate developments.

According to Dawn, the SBP report said, "In Pakistan, the coverage and timeliness of information need improvement and there are often large revisions to 'annual' GDP growth estimates relative to provisional estimates. These, together with scarce availability of high-frequency real sector data, complicate forecasting and real-time decision making." (ANI)