Ishaq Dar Thanks Chinese Banks for Support, Says Pakistan Out of ‘Turbulent Phase’

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday praised China’s banking industry and institutions for helping out Pakistan. Dar said during the opening ceremony of Bank of China’s second branch in Islamabad that Chinese banks have been great financial partners of Pakistan as they have massively supported the country in its tough moments. He reiterated that the country is “fairly out of that turbulent phase” and “now moving from stability to growth again”. More on recovery, Dar said Pakistan has benefited from the RMB 30 billion currency swap agreement with China. He recalled a recent request to China for enhancing the limit of the soft facility to RMB 40 billion, something that Beijing responded to positively. Dar expressed hope that the RMB (the official currency of China) will go international soon. “The five countries representing BRICS have started already formalizing it and dozens of countries are in the pipeline to join. I see RMB would one day be a parallel internationally accepted currency in the financial world,” he added.