Miftah Ismail denies fears on Pakistan's failure in loan repayments

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has denied apprehensions with regard to Pakistan’s likely failure in repayment of international loans.

Ismail, while talking to a think tank in United Arab Emirates expressed hope that the country will receive more dollars in next few weeks, which will help in improvement in the exchange rate.

He said that a request to a friendly country for boosting the foreign exchange reserves was rejected.

The finance minister said that a permanent governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would be nominated soon.

“The Governor of State Bank and the Prime Minister know, we will not default,” Ismail said. He said his ministry was taking efforts to improve the balance of payment of the country.

“We will continue to keep the imports in a reasonable limit for next two to three months,” federal minister said. “Pakistan is expected to receive more dollars from abroad in next two weeks,” he said. “It will help removing pressure over the rupee,” minister said.

“The foreign currency reserves have declined to 9.3 billion dollars, but the reserves are sufficient for 45 days imports of the country,” Miftah said.

The minister in an earlier talk said that the country being in the WTO convention cannot think of imposing any cap on the dollar, adding that all the currencies have been depreciated against it. He maintained that some three days ago, Pakistan’s currency appreciated against euro, yen, and sterling pound, and it has been doing right in the basket of currencies.

The finance minister added that what happened during recent days was primarily because of political turmoil as import numbers of the ongoing month gave him confidence of a decline in the demand of the dollar against supply and consequently, the situation of the exchange rate would reverse.