ISLAMABAD: The government has managed to stabilise the economy and curtailed unsustainable fiscal and trade deficits by taking quick and effective measures, a statement said on Wednesday.
“…Immediate actions by the government helped stabilize the economy and reduce the unsustainable fiscal and trade deficits, leading to restoration of business confidence,” a finance ministry statement said. “The (PTI) government inherited an economy in a major balance of payment crisis which led to high inflation and low growth.”
It added that the success of the measures taken by the government to restore and further improve the business confidence was evident in the performance indicators which had significantly improved on many fronts.
The statement said the improvement in the business environment could be gauged by the fact that Moody's Investors Services had upgraded Pakistan's outlook from 'negative' to 'stable' in December 2019, reaffirming the country's rating of B3, whereas in June 2018, Moodys had downgraded outlook to
‘negative’.
“Similarly, Pakistan’s ranking in the Ease of Doing index had also moved higher by 28 points (108/190) while the World Bank ranked Pakistan among the Top 10 reformers in 2019,” the statement added.
Likewise, Bloomberg had showcased Pakistan Stock Exchange as the top performing market in the world in the last three months. “PSX benchmark KSE 100-share Index gained 50 percent in dollar terms since August 2019.”
The statement by the finance division also mentioned the remittances which had increased by 3 percent to $ 11.4 billion during July-December period as against $ 11 billion in the corresponding period last year.
“Similarly, after 4 years of outflow, net portfolio investment had gone up to $ 1.4 billion during the July-December FY20 while it was $ 330 million in the same period last year.”
Besides, FDI (foreign direct investment) during July-November FY20 had increased by 78 percent to $850 million as against $477 million in the same period last year.
Among the other indicators, exports had increased by 4 percent to $12.3 billion in the July-December 2019 period as against $11.9 billion in the same period last year.
The imports had decreased by 21 percent to $22 billion in July-December period as against $28 billion imports in the same period last year. Current account deficit during the July-November 2019 period had declined by 73 percent to $1.8 billion (1.6 percent of GDP) compared to $ 6.7 billion (5.3 percent GDP) in the same period last year.
Central bank’s foreign currency reserves had increase to $11.5 billion in the December 2019 from $7.2 billion in June 2019. Increase in official reserves was marked after debt repayments of $ 5.3 billion in July-November period, including $2.7 billion in interest payments and $2.6 billion in repayment of maturing debt.