Ishaq Dar reassures market of timely repayments

Finance Minis­ter Ishaq Dar on Wednesday said he did not get any discouragement from Washington over possible cheaper oil imports from Russia and reassured the markets that Pakistan would meet all international obligations without default. Speaking on the sidelines of the All Pakistan Chartered Accountants Conference, Mr Dar, who just returned from the United States after a weeklong visit to attend annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), also reiterated that greenback’s value would fall below Rs200 and inflation would also come down in few weeks. The minister declined to directly confirm if Pakistan would exit the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) later this week, saying the watchdog’s process and rules did not allow preemptive statements before its announcements but hoped the good news as Pakistan had complied with relevant standards.