Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said that by the end of this year inflation would fall to a single digit, compared to 12.6 percent reported in December 2019.

“The decline in interest rate would help bring down the policy rate, which would boost businesses investment opportunities. At the moment, the credit off take by the private sector has not increased much in the past six months, because of high interest rates,” said Umar.

Rising inflation rate is one of the major concerns plaguing Pakistan’s economy, with the overall consumer price index (CPI) rising on a monthly basis by 12.6 percent year-on-year (YoY) in December 2019 compared to the same month last year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) says.

The former finance minister predicted fiscal space reforms which will help increase the development budget for federal and provincial development projects.

He also encouraged closer cooperation between the private and public sectors. “We revamped the Public Private Partnership Authority, and we gave the Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway, which comes under the authority, a go ahead,” he said.

The minister also said that with the aid of the private sector, the federal government will initiate mega-projects in Karachi.