Gilani cautioned on state of economy

Source: Dawn

Date: 13 Jul, 2010

ISLAMABAD: While the rest of the country was fixated on the face-off between the media and the PML-N, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was provided a reality check last week about the precarious economic situation in the country.

 He was warned by the finance ministry that with the fiscal deficit touching 6.2 per cent of GDP (Rs925 billion) last year, the government ran the risk of IMF backing out unless it earned Rs500 billion through additional revenue or reduce its expenditures drastically during the current fiscal year.

More serious still, he was informed that the only way of controlling expenditures was to ask the provinces not to exercise their powers to raise additional funds under the new NFC award.

This was the gist of the message hammered home during a presentation by Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and his team to the prime minister during his visit to the ministry.

For details : http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/govt-must-contain-expenses-pm-cautioned-on-state-of-economy-370