ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the government has secured a historic achievement by enhancing country’s foreign exchange reserves to the highest-ever level of $23 billion.
Talking to media, Ishaq Dar said that Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves had surged to $23 billion, the highest ever in the country’s history.
“Similarly, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for the first time in the last decade achieved its tax collection target of Rs3104 billion set for the previous financial year, 2015-16,” he elaborated.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has announced that country’s inflation rate remained below 3 percent during the last fiscal year, the lowest in 46 years. These three achievements have come as major successes for the PML-N, which is currently under pressure after Panama Leaks.
Giving the break-up of $23 billion foreign exchange reserves, Dar said, $18 billion were with the State Bank of Pakistan and $4.9 billion with the private banks.
Pakistan has recently received $1.3 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Asian Development Bank. The inflow from international financial institutions has taken the reserves to the highest-ever level in the country’s history.
The finance minister further said that Pakistan’s debt would not jump up with the increasing foreign reserves. He hoped that the government’s internal debt would gradually reduce due to increase in these reserves. He felicitated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and FBR for achieving a target of Rs3104 billion during financial year, 2015-16.
