Rigourous steps by govt saved economy amid pandemic hit, says Hafeez Shaikh

ISLAMABAD: Federal finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh addressed on Monday a Webinar predicated on the prosperity of Pakistan noted the global economy is to shrink 4.4 per cent in the backdrop of novel coronavirus, ARY News reported.  

The global economy is experiencing an extraordinary crisis right now, said the federal minister in the backdrop of Covid-led plunge to businesses and trade the world over.

Including Pakistan, the global community is experiencing the repercussion of surging Covid cases and since assuming power in 2018, the incumbent government, too, faced many similar challenges, he said.

Exercising rigorous financial constraints limiting our imports and expenditure, we have managed to grow our revenue, Shaikh added.

Our difficult measures have turned the current account into surplus from what was a chronic deficit, Shaikh said in the webinar today adding that a further 14 pc increase in tax collection was another feather in the cap.

Remittances, exports, and foreign investments into Pakistani markets have aided our economy in the times of global pandemic while industrial growth was recorded to be 6.7 pc, claimed Shaikh in his address.

READ: Inflation declines for fourth straight week in Pakistan, Hafeez Shaikh told

Hafeez Shaikh said the smart lockdown policy to strike a balance between caution for the pandemic spread and allowing business and trade to breathe has let our economy sustain in adverse times and it was globally acknowledged.

We designated a fund of Rs1.2 trillion for the COVID relief program to aid the poor and help the formal and informal economy endure the phase where COVID hit us hard.