ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday that the economy of the country has been improved due to the prudent policies of the government. He was addressing National Defence University (NDU) Institute for Strategic Studies’ National Security Workshop’s participants. The minister was received by Lieutenant General Nazir Ahmed Butt and Major General Ghulam Qamar among other senior officials of the college. Dar spoke on the ‘Economic Policy of Pakistan’ and shared the perspective on the country’s economy, the challenges faced by the government in 2013 and steps taken for to counter it with a roadmap for future economic growth in the country. The minister said that when the government came to office, the priority was to re-fix the economy and bring macro-economic stability. Prior to 2013, the country was faced with serious challenges like macro-economic instability, frequent power outages and dire security situation. Agriculture, large scale manufacturing sectors were all underachieving and the foreign exchange reserve had reached precarious levels – causinghighrates of interest and inflation. “The external sector was heavily out of balance and the performance of state owned enterprises had severely deteriorated,” he said. The incumbent government has paid attention to all these issues and achieved considerable success in resolving them by taking necessary steps to ensure fiscal discipline and consolidation. “In this regard, we undertook structural reforms, including restructuring Pubic Sector Enterprises and other measures including reduction in un-targeted subsidies and broadened the tax base,” Dar added. Measures were also taken to build foreign exchange reserves, contain inflation and overcome energy shortages, he said added that Pakistan’s ratings had improved by the international rating agencies– acknowledgingthe incumbent government’s achievements. The minister noted that the slowdown in the global economy has posed a risk for Pakistan like other developing economies and the strengthening of the energy infrastructure and improving security ‘will be the key to achieving higher levels of growth in the country’.