Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar Tuesday expressed the hope that Pakistan will “successfully conclude” the upcoming review of the International Monetary Fund scheduled next month.
An IMF mission led by Nathan Porter will visit Pakistan from Nov 2-16 to discuss the first review of the country’s current $3 billion standby arrangement.
“We have achieved the targets and the revenue targets have been met. We are quite comfortable that our negotiations for the second tranche will conclude very successfully,” the prime minister told the journalists.
On inflation, the prime minister said that it would be “unfair” if someone says that there has been no decline in the inflation rate. He added that he had received reports of a decline in the prices of essential items which he said was because of the appreciation of the rupee against the dollar and a decrease in the price of petroleum products. The PM also asked journalists to calculate the impact of the local unit’s appreciation against the greenback on the circular debt.
He shared that the strict actions against the smuggling taking place through the Afghan transit trade had helped the local industry as productivity was back on track.
The PM said due to the smuggling the local mills, which he used as an example, were unable to compete against smuggled items and were forced to shut down.
