Economic situation not as bleak as portrayed: PM’s aide

ISLAMABAD: Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Economy and Energy Bilal Azhar Kayani has said the incumbent government has successfully averted the looming default and made significant progress towards stabilizing and rebuilding the national economy on a sustainable basis.

Responding to a tweet of Atif Mian titled, “Pakistan’s economy is in a tailspin, going from crisis to catastrophe”, Bilal said although Pakistan faced serious economic challenges, the situation was not as bleak as portrayed in the thread.

He said the current government had averted default and made significant progress towards stabilising and rebuilding the economy.

“There is a primary surplus of 0.9% of GDP this year as compared to a primary deficit of 0.6% during last year,” he said, adding that the current economic difficulties, including inflation, had been directly caused by the disastrous decisions of the Imran Khan government, which destroyed the economy in four years and deliberately pushed the country towards default before leaving the government last year.

“Imran Khan’s government not only almost doubled Pakistan’s debt but also caused a current account deficit of $17.4 billion in the fiscal year 2022,” he said, adding that this figure would have been even higher if the current government had not taken mitigating measures after assuming office in April 2022.