LAHORE: Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar on Sunday claimed that the government had taken difficult decisions to save the country from bankruptcy.
Talking to reporters in the provincial capital, the federal minister said the economy would now take off towards prosperity.
He said the PTI government had faced severe economic issues when it came to power and was forced to take strict decisions despite its reluctance.
“If we have had not taken those decisions, the situation could be more than worst,” he said and added the government had brought the economy out of an intensive care unit and soon it would witness growth.
Azhar said in the past, the downtrodden segments of the society were not provided with relief through welfare and development projects, adding their top priority was to develop under privileged areas of the country that were once neglected.
“Earlier billions of rupees were diverted towards projects in the developed areas to facilitate the privileged class,” he claimed.
About bringing the country out of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, the minister said Pakistan was placed on the list in February 2018 and since after coming into power, they were able to implement on 14 points out of 28-point implementation plan.
He said currently the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) was independent in its working contrary to the past practice.
“The inflation has witnessed a decline and if this trend continues the interest rate could also come down,” the minister said.
Azhar said the prices of petroleum products had been reduced to provide a relief to the masses, adding prices of commodities like onion, tomatoes and flour had already witnessed a sharp decline.
He hoped the prices of other essential commodities would also be brought down in coming days.
