Contrary to claims made by his arch political foes that the country’s economy is down in the dumps, Prime Minister Imran Khan has dished out some feel-good stats to prove his naysayers wrong. Taking to the micro-blogging platform Twitter, the PM heaped praises on his economic team for pulling off a ‘turnaround’ within a short span of one year that he has been at the helm. He made special mention of what he called a ‘sharp decline’ in the current account deficit and an increase in investments. He also shared some data-graphs showing performance of foreign direct investment, exports and remittances besides a sharp decline in the current account deficit.
Khan said that a 111.5pc increase was recorded in the foreign direct investment and a 194pc increase in foreign private investment during the past one year. The massive increase in investments was a reflection of the trust of foreign investors in the government’s economic policies, he added.
The prime minister said that the current account deficit was on a 41-month low in September 2019. Between July-September, the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the current account deficit declined by a huge 64pc to $1.5bn from $4.3bn over the last year. It was mainly led by a 21pc decline in imports. Pakistan had witnessed the biggest current account deficit at $18.25 billion before the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had taken over the government. He went on to say that remittances from overseas Pakistanis showed a 17.6 per cent increase in remittances during last month.
The fiscal deficit shrank by 36 per cent in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year as revenue increased and expenditure cuts took effect. PM Khan’s economic team led by Adviser on Finance Dr Hafeez Shaikh — currently visiting Washington to attend the annual meetings of International Monetary Fund/World Bank-2019 — held a series of meetings with heads of various global financial institutions and business leaders to apprise them of the overall state of economy in Pakistan. Amid grim forecasts, the fact that some facets of the economy are doing well should be hailed as welcome news.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2019.
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