ISLAMABAD: The rupee continued to depreciate against the US dollar and touched the 226 mark on Wednesday, with Finance Minister Mifta Ismail saying the situation will return to normalcy in the next few days after the political situation improves.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Miftah Ismail said that the dollar has also gained against other currencies of the world. However, he added that the recent depreciation of the rupee against the dollar is due to the political situation in the country. radio pakistan informed of.
Highlighting the achievements of his government, the Finance Minister said that the business fundamentals have been corrected as a result of the measures taken in the last few months.
Imports have come down during this period, he said, adding that this has helped strike a balance between imports and exports and remittances.
The minister said the trade deficit during the last fiscal was $48 billion and the current account deficit was $17 billion, which he emphasized, the country cannot afford.
Miftah said that an agreement has been reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in which it has been clearly stated that the government will implement it. He said the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have also opened their financing to Pakistan after the agreement.
He said that some friendly countries have also assured that they will help Pakistan to meet its funding shortfall. Giving details of the aid, he said a friendly country has promised to provide $1.2 billion of oil on deferred payments. He said another has shown interest in investing in Pakistan’s stock market, while another has shown interest in providing gas worth $2.4 billion to Pakistan on deferred payments.
Miftah said that one friendly country would deposit $2 billion in the State Bank of Pakistan while the other would provide SDR 2 billion.
The Finance Minister said that we also want to sell Balloki and Haveli Bahadur Shah Power Plant.
He said the economy is on the right track and tax collection has improved.
“We will increase the tax-to-GDP ratio and reduce the budget deficit during the current fiscal,” the finance minister said.
He was confident that the problem of inflation would also be tackled in the next two to three months.