It could take “close to three years” for Pakistan to recover from devastating floods that killed more than 1,700 people and displaced another 7.9 million, the country’s new finance minister has said.
Ishaq Dar, who took the finance post last month for the fourth time in his career, said losses from the floods are estimated to surpass £28 billion and the cost of rebuilding damaged infrastructure will exceed £14 billion.
Monsoon rains, likely made worse by climate change, hammered Pakistan for months starting in mid-June, damaging or washing away two million homes.
Mr Dar said rebuilding “can’t be done overnight” and will take “maybe close to three years”, though he acknowledged he is “not an engineer”.
The World Bank last month pledged £1.8 billion in flood aid.
Mr Dar returned to the finance ministry at a difficult time for Pakistan. Moody’s Investors Service, citing Pakistan’s decreased foreign currency reserves, this month downgraded the country’s government debt.
With inflation running at more than 20% year-over-year, Pakistan’s currency the rupee has fallen 19% against the dollar this year.
But Mr Dar, who earned a reputation for supporting a strong rupee during his earlier tenure as finance minister, noted the currency rallied upon his return to the job – it is up nearly 10% against the dollar since late September.
Mr Dar was in Washington this week for meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
The visit got off to a rocky start.
He was heckled and called “a thief” by an unidentified individual upon arrival on Thursday at Dulles International Airport.
On Friday, he shrugged off the incident, which was captured on video and shared online, as the act of a political opponent of the government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
“Obviously, this is domestic politics which has gone cross-border,” Mr Dar said. “That shouldn’t be.”
