PM says Tarin’s appointment aimed at boosting growth, containing inflation

• ‘Our government saved the economy in the midst of pandemic’

• Financial assistance from Saudi Arabia, China helped Pakistan gain economic stability: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday said cartels and monopoly as witnessed in the case of sugar mills resulted in inflation. The appointment of Shaukat Tarin as finance minister aimed at controlling inflation and increasing the growth rate. The prime minister made these remarks in a live telephonic call session with the general public. This was the third such interactive session titled 'Aap ka Wazir-e-Azam, Aap ke Sath', where the prime minister took questions from people through live phone calls and responded to questions.

On petroleum prices, he said the government had kept the price of commodity lower as compared to India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, China, United States, Turkey, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Bhutan so as to avoid burden on consumers.

Worldwide, he said, the prices of commodities went up during the pandemic, including gas by 60 percent, food 29 percent, metal 41 percent, crude oil 84 percent, cotton 44 percent, palm oil 54.8 percent, soya bean oil 36.6 percent and sugar 14.5 percent. According to a Bloomberg report on food inflation and agricultural sub-index, Pakistan still kept the prices low, he added.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said with solid steps, the government had achieved remarkable economic growth in diverse sectors.

Through reforms the economic losses of public corporations had been reduced from Rs 286 billion to Rs 143 billion, the current account deficit remained in surplus for the last 10 months and the foreign exchange reserves increased to $15.6 billion.

“During the pandemic situation when the whole world is facing financial crunch, our government has saved the economy,” he said.

He acknowledged that the financial assistance from Saudi Arabia and China also helped Pakistan gain the economic stability.

Imran Khan said now the rupee had strengthened against dollar at Rs 152, exports increased by 13.5 percent, the Euro bond helped gain $2.5 billion and the revenue of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) rose by 11 percent.

The textile and cement industries, he said, witnessed a boom, while the local car manufacturing was recorded at 18 percent. The Pakistan Stock Exchange showed a bullish trend by 66 percent increase as per Bloomberg and the information technology exports increased by 44 percent.

Imran Khan said incentives in the housing sector had encouraged economic activity and the banks were offering loans for the construction of houses. He acknowledged the role of courts in the passage of foreclosure law of banks, which, he said, had greatly helped in materialization of the low-cost housing project.

Responding to a caller who complained about delay in a housing project for government employees in Bhara Kahu (Islamabad), he advised his staff to note the matter for further pursuance.

To overcome issues of water shortage and sanitation, he said the government was making master plans of cities and had also allowed vertical construction to maximum accommodate the population. Imran Khan said lack of planning and civic infrastructure had led to improper expansion of metropolitan cities. Dams were being constructed to overcome water scarcity, he said, adding a special arrangement for water supply to Islamabad was in progress.