Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Dr Raza Baqir on Wednesday said the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) developments had delayed but not derailed the recovery process of the country’s economy.
Addressing a webinar, the governor said Pakistan’s pre-COVID performance on economic front had helped containing the huge damage that could have been done otherwise.
“The pre-COVID improvements in fundamentals, the prudent policy response during COVID, and fully funded external and fiscal positions support resilience”, Raza Baqir added.
The webinar titled Pakistan Economy – Post COVID-19- Central Bank’s Perspective was organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountant of Pakistan (ICAP), said a press release.
Raza Baqir said before COVID-19, the country’s external and fiscal fundamentals recorded significant improvement, Current Account Deficit went down unprecedently, foreign exchange reserves had increased, fiscal deficit was reducing, tax revenues were on upward trajectory while Pakistan’s stock exchange performance was extraordinary.
He said due to this performance, the COVID-19’s impact on financial markets had been relatively contained in Pakistan compared to many other emerging markets.
“Proactive and prudent fiscal and monetary policy measures, in coordination with international financial institutions have also been helping to cushion the impact of COVID-19,” he remarked.
Recalling the worst economic situation in 2018 and early 2019, the governor said had the COVID-19 surfaced at that time, our economy would have been on its knees by now.