Economic growth hits 10-year high of around 6 per cent: Miftah

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Miftah Ismail said on Monday economic growth in Pakistan has reached a 10-year high of about six per cent.

Addressing  World Islamic Economic Forum in Karachi here, Miftah said the country’s economic condition has been improving with inflation expected to remain in the reasonable range of five percent.

He stressed that accelerating the growth rate was indispensable for eradication of poverty and unemployment.

The adviser said that improved law and order situation as well as eradication of energy crisis boasted the economic growth.

The PML-N government added 12 thousands megawatt electricity to the national grid over the last five years, he added.

He said the government didn’t intend to impose new taxes in the upcoming financial budget and would prefer improving growth rate rather than increasing the size of the budget.

Miftah said an amount of $4 billion had been paid to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the head of debt repayments, and added the government would make more payments of over 2 billion dollars this year.

He said the government could take commercial loans to shore up the country’s foreign reserves.