ISLAMABAD : Finance Minister Asad Umar on Tuesday clarified to the National Assembly that the country cannot recover from the current fiscal crisis without securing a bailout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had said even before elections, we need a bailout,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He informed lawmakers that Pakistan faces a deficit of $35 billion and the rupee\u2019s value has depreciated, as a result, the country has sought foreign loans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current account deficit was $25 billion when the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) left [in 2013]. In December 2017, Miftah Ismail was the finance minister. The rupee was depreciating and the government\u2019s expenditures were increasing at a faster pace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and our friends,\u201d said Umar and added that the economy needs support as the budget deficit has increased by more than Rs900 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recent agreement with Saudi Arabia was worth $9 billion over three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The finance minister also claimed that any IMF bailout would be the last for the country, adding that Pakistan would cooperate with China to take CPEC into the next phase and reduce the trade deficit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will give priority to the export industry and have reduced taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD : Finance Minister Asad Umar on Tuesday clarified to the National Assembly that the country cannot recover from the current fiscal crisis without securing a bailout. \u201cWe had said even before elections, we need a bailout,\u201d he added. He informed lawmakers that Pakistan faces a deficit of $35 billion and the rupee\u2019s value has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n