Pakistan saved from becoming Sri Lanka: Miftah Ismail

ISLAMABAD: Following the significant policy changes and the austerity measures taken by the coalition government, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said that the serious worries about Pakistan heading the way of Sri Lanka and getting into a default-like situation have been averted.

In an interview with CNBC, Miftah Ismail said the high price of energy imports recently pushed Pakistan to the brink of a balance of payments crisis.

He maintained that Pakistan's foreign currency reserves fell as low as $9.8 billion, which were hardly enough for five weeks of imports, while the Pakistani rupee weakened to record lows against the US dollar this year.

Responding to a question about high inflation, the minister said that the global rise in prices of oil, and other commodities were the main reasons behind the inflation in the country. 

He, however, said the country is now heading in the right direction.

The finance minister maintained that the coalition government took tough measures to steer the country out of the economic crisis. Miftah Ismail said that the rupee has come back about 7% against the US dollar in the last week.