ISLAMABAD, Jan 27 (APP): Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar on Friday said the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government left the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) growth at 6.10 percent in 2018, which Imran Khan’s government brought to “negative growth”.
During a media talk in response to Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan’s statement regarding the country’s economy, Ishaq Dar said that Pakistan Muslim League-N’s government left the GDP at $356.8 billion in 2018 with an increase of $122 billion.
“During our previous government, international rating agencies were predicting Pakistan to join the G-20 by 2030,” the finance minister said.
Ishaq Dar said that Imran Khan’s speech was full of “lies” and the latter presented “concocted false economic figures” of the current government, which were not based on reality.
He said that today’s economic crisis and inflation were due to the wrong economic policies of Imran Khan’s government.
The finance minister said that “we had a choice to save the country or our politics, but we sacrificed politics for the sake of the country”.
He said the per capita income was $1798 during PML(N) previous government, which went to $1768 in the PTI government.
He said that the inflation rate was 8.6 percent in the former PML-N government, which came to “double digits during the PTI era”.
“Along with this, food inflation was 2 percent during the last PML(N) regime, which reached 12 percent during PTI’s tenure,” he added.
He said during Imran Khan’s regime, the foreign direct Investment was non-existent, which had reached $2,000 million during the PML-N government.
The minister said that Imran Khan continued to “tarnish the image of the country in his speeches during foreign visits”, asking “how can investment come in the country” [with such approach]?
He said Current Account Deficit in the PML(N) previous government was $19.2 billion, which was due to the PML(N) efforts to end the menace of terrorism and load shedding.
“Remember that at that time there were 18 hours of load shedding in the country which was abolished by the PML(N) government,” he recalled.
He said the country’s export and COD improved during the PML (N) former government.
The minister said that “Imran Khan’s former government destroyed the country’s economy and damaged the country’s image and economic credibility”.
