Pakistan would miss even revised growth target

Pakistan would miss even the revised GDP growth target for the current fiscal year as the National Account Committee was informed that the actual growth would be 2.37 percent and not 2.5 percent. Sources said that the NAC meeting chaired by Secretary Statistics Division here on Saturday approved the nine months figures of the ongoing fiscal year as well as revised downward the growth of previous year from 5.8 percent to 4.1 percent.
The meeting noted that the growth this year would be 2.37 percent and that too because of outstanding performance by agriculture sector. The figures on the economic indicators approved by the NAC for the ongoing fiscal year would be the source of Economic Survey to be released ahead of the budget.
The growth in agriculture and services sectors would be 4.7 and 3.8 percent respectively during the current fiscal year whereas a negative growth of 5.73 percent is expected in Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM). The data approved by the NAC shows that a serious blow has been witnessed by the construction sector with its growth declining by 10.8 percent, while the electricity and gas sectors witnessed a negative growth of 3.8 percent. The industry and manufacturing sectors are also said to have witnessed 2.6 and 2.1 percent negative growth during the nine months of the current fiscal year.
The NAC also approved the cotton production figures at 11.81 million bales against the target of 14.11 million bales and sugarcane production 50.04 million tonnes. The meeting also acknowledged that the wholesale and retail trade witnessed a rise of 3.8 percent. The meeting approved an increase of 1 percent in per capita.
During the current fiscal year private sector investment registered a growth of 11.6 percent while the public sector investment growth stood at 8.4 percent. The meeting was attended by financial experts and economists from the Planning Commission, the finance ministry, the State Bank, the Federal Board of Revenue and other departments. The committee will review the economic performance of current fiscal year and the next budget preparations would be undertaken in light of these figures.