Ban on wheat export to continue till price stability: Ashfaq

Advisor to Ministry of Finance, Dr Ashfaq Hassan Khan Thursday said that government would not allow the export of wheat till the prices come down to the level that prevailed during May in the domestic market.
"We will even ensure stability of prices at May's level for a long time before allowing the export of wheat," he said while talking to a group of economic journalists at PTV centre here. Dr Ashfaq Hassan Khan said that the poor harvest in a number of countries including Australia, United States and India had pushed the prices of this important staple cereal very high in the international market.
He said that certain elements from the private sector had tried to benefit from the situation by procuring wheat at the rates higher than the support price with an objective to export it.
He said that Pakistan had produced 23.5 million tonnes of wheat first time in the history. " Let the benefit of good harvest of wheat reach common man in the country," Dr Ashfaq Hassan Khan said.
Dr Ashfaq Hassan Khan while terming one dollar a day benchmark to ascertain poverty as notional, said that the purchasing power parity (PPP) in Pakistan was US $2700 against per capita income of US $925. He said that incidence of poverty in the country at the moment stood at 23.9 percent.
He said that some 12.8 million people in the country came out of poverty net during the period 2001-05. Of these, 10.5 million belonged to rural areas, he added. The advisor said that the food inflation presently stood at 10.2 percent against 16 percent during 1990s.
He said that food inflation in China had been estimated at 8.3 percent against core inflation of 1.1 percent." Food inflation is a world-wide phenomenon, mainly due to poor harvests," he said. Talking about the methodology to ascertain the purchasing power parity in the country, he said that family budget survey was conducted every five years. " Next such survey is due in the year 2007-08," he added.
Dr Ashfaq Hassan said that the salaries of government employees from BPS-1 to 22 had increased by 107 percent to 137 percent during the period 1998-2007 while cumulative inflation during this period stood at 53 percent, showing a net relief of 54 to 84 percent to the employees. Responding to a question, he said that government would be able to restrict the inflation rate to 6.5 percent in the year 2007-08.