Federal Minister for Finance, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh here on Wednesday said that government was striving hard to minimize the fiscal deficit for the growth of national economy.

Talking to media after a meeting of Parliamentary Committees of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) on economic reforms agenda, he said that fiscal deficit was recorded at 2.8 percent during last six months of current financial year.

He said that economy was showing improvement as country’s exports had witnessed increase and foreign exchange reserves were building up, while workers remittances had also enhanced.

The minister said that the meeting had also discussed the ways to increase the national income and decrease the expenditures for improving the national economy.

To a question as how the ministers in government committee would negotiate with PML-N team after the submission of resignations, Hafeez Shaikh said that the Prime Minister had directed them to continue working till the formation of new cabinet.

Senator Ishaq Dar on the occasion said that the fiscal deficit was the main problem of national economy and the committee had suggested to take measures like the ones were taken in 2008 to control the deficit.