ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Due to the prudent economic policies of the incumbent government, the macro-economic indicators were showing resilience and for the first time country’s foreign exchange reserves have reached the historic US$ 21 billion mark.
Out of the total foreign exchange reserves held by the country, US$ 16 billion were with the State Bank of Pakistan and the rest US$ 5 billion were with the commercial banks.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had also felicitated the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and his economic team for building the forex reserves which would further improve trade and investment climate of the country.
He said Pakistan was back on the path of economic growth, owing to political stability, improved security and transparency in the public sector governance.
The increasing foreign exchange reserves were another positive indicator and would help in attracting the foreign direct investment besides boosting the investors’ confidence to invest in different sector of national economy.
It may be recalled that since last year, the forex reserves share of State Bank of Pakistan has increased from US$ 3 billion to 16 billion which had also strengthened the economic position of country.
The increasing forex reserves has also averted the predictions made by couple years back claiming that Pakistan’s economy was on verge of default and it would suffer badly.
According to a latest statement of Finance Minister, Pakistan just received less than US$300 million net inflows from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the tenure of the current government.
He said that US$ 4.765 billion were received from the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and paid back US$4.5 billion on the loan obtained during the PPP-led regime, indicating that the net addition was less than $300 million on account of IMF contribution.
Source: APP
