There is no economic crisis in the country, says finance minister

Those spreading rumours about the economy are not doing any favour to the country.

Asad Umar, Finance Minister

islamabad— Finance Minister Asad Umar on Tuesday rejected the notion that the country is facing an economic crisis, saying the “financing gap for the current fiscal year has been met”.

He said that “those spreading rumours about the economy are not doing any favour to the country”.

While speaking at the 11th South Asia Economic Summit, Umar said that “all the fundamental economic indicators are improving as a result of effective policies of the present government”.

He also pointed out that exports are increasing while imports and current account deficit are witnessing downward trend.

Talking about the record rise of the US dollar against the Pakistani rupee in the interbank market, the finance minister said the rupee has been witnessing depreciation since last year.

He, however, said that the situation is now improving.

Umar also made it clear that no compromise will be made on the independence of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). A day earlier, during a meeting with TV anchors at PM House, Prime Minister Imran Khan had revealed that he was unaware of the SBP move (on Friday) to decrease the value of the currency against the US dollar and came to know about rupee depreciation through the media.

The prime minister said the SBP was compelled to depreciate the rupee in order to preserve the country’s foreign currency accounts, as the government inherited a $19 billon trade deficit from the last PML-N government.

The premier said although the SBP was an autonomous body, he had asked the authorities that no such decision be taken without taking the government into confidence first. —