ISLAMABAD: The government is committed to following macroeconomic fundamentals through effective policy making and targeted reforms with an aim to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth trajectory.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said this while chairing a meeting of the Monetary and Fiscal Policies Coordination Board on Thursday.
Other members of the board present in the meeting were Adviser to the PM on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood, Planning Commission deputy chairman, special finance secretary and State Bank Governor Dr Reza Baqir. The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman also attended the meeting on special invitation.
Dr Hafeez Shaikh emphasized the active role of the board for designing policies to address economic challenges like inflation, stagnant exports, resource mobilization etc. He also stressed the need for building the capacity of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to provide reliable data that could help in effective policymaking.
He urged the role of public-private partnership which can help the government in resource mobilization and desired that PPP authority should come up with a comprehensive plan of resource mobilization for socio-economic development of the country.
He stated that the mandate of the board is to review the overall economic situation and coordinate policy actions in an effective manner to achieve the desired targets of key economic indicators.
The special finance secretary on the occasion presented the current economic situation of the country and elaborated that the economy is on path of recovery. He also highlighted various policy measures adopted to achieve high economic growth and job creation.
The SBP governor appreciated the efforts of the Ministry of Finance for making a technical committee to design a joint macro-economic framework which will help in making effective monetary and fiscal policy being the prime objective of this forum.
He said that the policy rate has been kept unchanged at 7pc due to improved business confidence and growth outlook. “The current accommodative stance of monetary policy will support economic recovery. Inflationary pressure is also expected to ease out in coming months due to various policy and administrative measures of the Federal and Provincial governments.”
Meanwhile, the commerce adviser informed that performance of exports remained subdued in August due to unprecedented monsoon rains taking a toll on supply chain.
He, however, observed that the exports will register a sharp improvement in September 2020.
He said that current account balance is in surplus, which will have a positive impact on the exchange rate stability of the currency.
The Planning Commission deputy chairman apprised the meeting that coronavirus has affected the confidence of both consumer and investors. However, the stimulus package of the government and recent accommodative monetary policy are providing impetus to investment and growth.
