Pakistan revises 2020-21 GDP growth to 5.37%

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has revised its economic growth rate for 2020-21 to 5.37% from 3.9%, Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar announced on Thursday.

"The growth in 2020-21 was 5.37%," minister Asad Umar said in a tweet, adding that the National Accounts Committee (NAC), a government body that reviews the economic indicators, had approved the revised estimate of GDP growth.

This is the second time the GDP growth rate for 2020-21 has been revised. It was set at 2.3% in the 2020 federal budget announcement, and then recorded at 3.9%.

The country's statistics bureau also shifted its economy's baseline, which pushed the figure up further to 5.57%, a statement from the planning ministry said.

The new baseline also increased Pakistan's contraction in 2019-20 to 1%, from the earlier 0.4%. It increased the GDP growth rate for 2017-18 to 6.1% as well.

With the new 2015-16 baseline, it said, Pakistani total GDP has now reached $346.76 billion with a per capita income of $1,666.

Pakistan's economic woes put PM Imran's future in doubt

For the ongoing fiscal year (2021-22), Pakistan has set a target of 4.8%, but policymakers are hopeful growth will cross 5%.

Umar said the revised number showed the second-highest growth in the last 14 years. The higher growth was mainly due to strong industrial growth between April and June, he said.

With inflation at 12.3%, surging food and energy prices have put Prime Minister Imran Khan under increasing pressure.

The government presented a mid-year budget this month to end tax exemptions on a variety of sectors to raise close to Rs350 billion for the current fiscal year. The mini-budget is a key condition ahead of the 6th review of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Extended Fund Facility.

The IMF board will meet on January 28 to look into reviving the stalled $6-billion funding programme.

Quantum Index of LSMI also rebased

Earlier, Business Recorder reported that the government has also rebased the Quantum Index of Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) from 2005-06 to 2015-16, increasing the total 112 items with cumulative weight of 70.3 percent for computation to 123 items having total weight of 78.4 percent, where the Ministry of Industries and Production weight has been decreased from 49.556 percent in the QIM 2005-06 to 40.54 percent in QIM 2015-16.

Read more: Quantum Index of LSMI rebased