Govt will reduce fiscal deficit to 4 per cent, Hammad Azhar tells Senate.

ISLAMABAD -- Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar has said the government has set a target of reducing the fiscal deficit to four percent in the next one or two years. Speaking in the Senate on Friday during Question Hour, he said the country's fiscal deficit for the first quarter of the current financial year remained within the target as according to the IMF the government over-performed in this area. He said the government took difficult decisions to save the country from default. 'We retired over ten billion dollars of debt in the first year which is the highest made by any government,' Hammad Azhar said, adding foreign exchange reserves are also on upward trajectory. He said revenue collection has also witnessed growth during the first half of current fiscal year

and efforts are afoot to enhance non-tax revenue. The minister said the...