ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday allayed businessmen’s fears, stating that the country was headed in the “right direction” and would not default, despite worrying economic indicators.
Pakistan is finding it difficult to negotiate its economic crisis in recent months, given the country’s volatile political situation and poor macroeconomic indicators. Amid soaring inflation, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are dwindling as its currency takes a beating against the US dollar.
With Pakistan in desperate need of external financing, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) review for the release of its next tranche of loan has been pending since September. However, in an interaction with businessmen in Lahore, Dar rejected reports Pakistan would default.
“Pakistan will not default just because of the propaganda of the opposition (Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf). The country’s direction is right and it is not heading for default,” Dar said, according to Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
He accused the opposition party, PTI, of hurting Pakistan’s “economic cause,” adding that it was trying to forestall foreign investment in the country. “The PTI needs to show some serious attitude and should not play with the country’s economy,” Dar was quoted as saying in the report.
The minister criticized the previous governments of the PTI and his own party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for their policies to devalue the currency. Dar was widely criticized for deliberately undervaluing the rupee by pumping dollars into the market, during his previous stint as finance minister from 2013-2017.
“We devalued the rupee. During the tenure of [former premier] Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, I had made it clear that if a devaluation policy was observed then the government could not arrest depreciation of our currency,” he said.
Dar said no more experiments could be done with the national economy, according to the report. “We are trying our best to stabilize the economy,” he said.