‘Pakistan will survive…it will take time,’ says Pak FM Ishaq Dar

As Pakistan reels from severe economic crises, the country's finance minister said it will take some time to set the economy on the right path. At present, the country is grappling with high external debt, a weak local currency and dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, during the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) said, "There's no quick fix, and it will take time as we had faced such challenges in 1998 and 2013; but all of those challenges were efficiently tackled in due course of time".

He said in 2017, the world was applauding Pakistan's performance and the economy was performing at its peak. "Pakistan was going in the right direction but the political instability destroyed everything, plunging Pakistan's economy from 24th position to 47th position in 2022, which was painful for all Pakistanis".

The Pakistan Finance Minister assured that "Pakistan will survive and we will collectively face all the challenges to put the country back on track, leading to progress and prosperity".

Pakistan's government's top priority is no delay should occur in external payments. "I reassure you that we will come out of economic crises and come up with new ideas and initiatives which the country actually deserves through agricultural revolution and a special focus on IT".

Additionally, Dhar said that his country would not default on any sovereign commitments.

Dar said that Pakistan was a sovereign country with assets worth trillions of dollars while its external debts were  $100 billion, adding that only one asset relating to gas infrastructure was about 50% of the total debt.

The minister assured that the country would come out of the current challenges and would also create a sovereign wealth fund.

"God-willing, we will be coming up with new ideas in the weeks to come…We will bring an agricultural revolution in Pakistan, [and] a sovereign wealth fund will be created,” he said.

He said the government would present the budget and would continue after that for the long-term betterment of Pakistan.

Recently, global lender International Monetary Fund delayed the signing of a staff-level agreement to pave the way for $1.1 billion in financing for the cash-strapped nation.

It is believed that Pakistan would default if the IMF refused to provide funds but Dar has been pushing back such dire predictions and with some success till now.

Pakistan’s annual inflation rose to a record 37.97% year-on-year in May, according to official data. Previously, the highest-ever percentage of year-on-year inflation was recorded in April at 36.4%.