ISLAMABAD: Former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has predicted that foreign exchange reserves will be less than $2 billion by September this year.
According to the details, while addressing the business community at the German Embassy, the former finance minister said that foreign exchange reserves will drop to an alarming level of $2 billion, while the current political crisis is not like the old recession.
On the economic front, Pakistan’s loan program of $7 billion from the IMF has been suspended for several months, while the level of foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank has reached $4. 40 billion.
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Miftah Ismail said that Pakistan will pay the debt of $3.70 billion and the interest of $400 million within two months. In other words, $4.10 billion will be needed to pay off the external debt.
Miftah Ismail said that out of $4.10 billion, $1 billion will be paid from the safe deposits of the Central Bank of China. In this way, a total of 3 billion 10 million dollars will be spent.
He said that we took a loan of $1.5 billion from two Chinese banks. It is also expected to be extended but this process will take some time. A check is sent to China, it keeps the money for one month and then extends the loan.