PTI white paper paints PML-N economic outlook black
Pakistan
PTI white paper paints PML-N economic outlook black
LAHORE (Dunya News) – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has released a white paper detailing the negative economic impact of the current coalition government, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
According to the document, inflation in the country has increased by 45% in the past eight months, and all economic indicators including exports, foreign direct investment, and remittances, have shown a downward trend since the government took power in April last year.
The PTI in its white paper stated that the economy was in shambles when it came into power in 2018.
The paper also cites the agricultural sector as having suffered due to the incumbent government s actions, and notes that Pakistan must pay back $127 billion in external debt, with 37% of the country s GDP to be dedicated to servicing this debt.
The white paper states that poverty, unemployment, and inflation will continue to rise even if the government accepts the International Monetary Fund s conditions for a bailout or defaults on the loan.
Agriculture and power sector
It stated that there was zero investment in agriculture and industrial sectors. The former rendered the country food deficient while the latter resulted in increasing imports.
The paper also accused the PML-N of leaving behind a mess in the energy sector by overbuilding the power sector supply through imported fuel power plants, which had dollar linked capacity payments.
Circular debt
“The PTI government had inherited Rs1.6 trillion in circular debt, while the annual capacity payments were Rs450 billion in FY2017-18, which rose to Rs1.4 trillion in FY2022-23,” it added.
Current Account Deficit
To further assert its numbers, the PTI maintained that the current account deficit (CAD) it inherited was $19.2 billion, while the state bank reserves stood at $9.4 billion.
The party also claimed that the fiscal deficit was 7.6 per cent of the total Gross domestic product (GDP), and debt to GDP ratio was 64pc.
Rupee devaluation and imports
The economic paper while mentioning the declining exports and increasing imports in the country during the PML-N tenure between 2013 to 2018 observed that the value of green backed by 23pc against the USD.
PTI tenure
While claiming that the country’s economy was on the brink of collapse when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government took over in 2018, the party’s white paper elicited that soon after coming into power, the government needed $32 billion funding for loan payments.
“The PTI government was forced to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with tough conditions as the then prime minister Imran Khan’s assays to raise foreign loans from friendly countrries to fund the CAD and pay loan payments went in vain,” the paper claimed.
The paper further stated that due to the IMF program, it was forced to increase discount rate by 325 basis points, and electricity, power tariffs and fuel prices, reducing fiscal deficit to 5.5 per cent of GDP by increasing taxes from Rs3.7 trillion to Rs5.5 trillion in a single year.
Read white paper below
