Summary Finance minister said financial stability was essential for economic growth and stressed the need to make macroeconomic stability sustainable
KARACHI (Dunya News) - Federal Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that investor participation in Pakistan’s economic growth has more than doubled over the past two and a half years.
Addressing a ceremony at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the finance minister said financial stability was essential for economic growth and stressed the need to make macroeconomic stability sustainable and end the country’s boom-and-bust cycle.
He said Rs60 billion had been disbursed under the Prime Minister’s Apna Ghar programme, while the banking industry had approved Rs340 billion for the initiative. The issue was no longer the availability of loans, he added, saying the banking sector had taken the lead and the supply side now needed to move forward.
Aurangzeb said the relevant stakeholders, including Arif Habib and ABAD, had a role to play in supporting the initiative, while REITs could serve as a bridge in this regard.
Recalling his first visit to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on March 29, 2024, he said the benchmark KSE-100 Index stood at around 67,000 points at the time, compared with nearly 170,000 points now. He said the factors behind the index’s performance were important and needed to be understood.
The minister said the highest number of initial public offerings (IPOs) in the past 20 years were recorded last year, with 11 offerings. He added that investor participation had more than doubled in two and a half years, while Gen Z and millennials accounted for 85% of participation in the stock market over the past 12 months.
He said Turkish investors had shown interest for the first time in the privatisation of distribution companies (DISCOs). Responding to questions about foreign direct investment, Aurangzeb said such investments required time.
He said the economy had contracted three years ago and stressed that the government’s role was to provide a conducive business environment, while the private sector should take the lead in economic activity.
Aurangzeb said the government must focus on sustaining macroeconomic stability and moving towards sustainable growth rather than relying on liquidity injections, warning that reviving an economy after a downturn was extremely difficult.
He also called for greater attention to achieving tax targets and said Pakistan needed to move towards “Economy 2.0”, which, he noted, extended beyond cryptocurrency and included opportunities in the global services sector.
The finance minister said the government was also working to expand the bond market to retail investors, while the Capital Markets Development Council was preparing recommendations to present to the prime minister.
