Daily Times

DUBAI: Pakistan and International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday successfully completed the 11th review of Extended Fund Facility for release of $510 million to Pakistan by the fund board.

Talking to media persons after a successful review, Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Ishaq dar said that the talks had been successful.

He said that the economic indicators had been positive and Pakistan also succeeded in scaling down the fiscal deficit.

Dar informed that Pakistan would set an ambitious growth target of 6 per cent during the upcoming financial year (2016-17). He said that due to low cotton production, the country might somehow miss the growth target, but he expressed the hope that 5 per cent target would be achieved.

The minister said that the country achieved 4.2 per cent growth in 2015 which was highest in last seven years. He said that by overcoming the challenges of security and energy, the country’s economy has the potential to grow at 7 per cent adding that the government was working to improve these conditions to further consolidate the economy.

Dar said that the revenue collection have been increased by 50 percent during the last three years. He said that 19 per cent growth was recorded during the first three-quarters of current year. It was after fifteen years that the stock exchanges of the country were merged this year to form Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), said the minister.