ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has accused former prime minister Imran Khan of presenting inaccurate economic numbers of his tenure and stated that the present government has been trying to fix the economic mess of the last four years.
This was stated by the finance minister in a press statement broadcast on state-run PTV in response to the press conference of former prime minister Imran Khan. “We have preferred state interests over political interests and came to power to save the state,” he added.
Dar said that the PTI government led by former prime minister has been responsible for the current economic situation and maintained that all the figures quoted by Imran Khan in his press talks were not accurate.
He said the government is fulfilling the sovereign commitments made by the PTI government with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He maintained that economy was harmed during the last four years. He said the PML-government left the GDP growth at 6.10 percent, which was decreased to 3.6 percent in the first year followed by negative in second year.
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Dar said per capita income was only increased by $30 from $1,768 to $1,796 in four years. He said depreciation of the rupee by the PTI government led to increase in inflation, whereas, policy rate was increased from 6.5 percent in 2018 to 14.5 percent in PTI government. Debt and liabilities were increased from Rs30 trillion to Rs55 trillion during the PTI government and debt as percentage of GDP was increased from 63 percent to 73 percent during the PTI government which came to power with the slogan to reduce the country’s debt.
He said the economy in terms of dollar was at $ 356 billion during the PML-N government in 2018 after an increase of $112 billion, whereas, it was increased merely by $26 billion to $382.8 billion during the four years of PTI government.
Dar said the current account deficit was $19.2 billion during the PML-N government, which constructed power plants to deal with the loadshedding and undertook the war against terrorists and extremists. The PTI government left the current account deficit at $17.4 billion.
Exports were increased during the PTI government because of price increase and not because of increase in quantity of items, he added. He said he was ready for debate with the former prime minister and stated that he should not misguide the public on the economy.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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