Advisor to Finance Ministry Dr Ashfaq Hasan has said despite increase in oil prices in international market and earthquake catastrophe, the pace of progress in overall growth rate would continue.
Speaking in a PTV programme, he said agriculture sector might perform marginally low but indicators would remain close to 4.2 per cent of the set target.
On the other hand, he said large scale-manufacturing sector had shown growth of 15-16 per cent over the past two to three years and the pace was expected to continue.
Similarly, he said a target of 6.7 per cent growth was set for the services sector, which was expected to over perform.
Explaining, he said according to set target the telecom sector had to extend around 0.5 million new cellular connections per month but it was providing 1.5 million connections at present.
There is enhanced activity in the construction sector, which is also expected to over perform, he said. He said the banking and insurance sectors were also expected to go beyond the set target.
Tax collection is more than satisfactory, he informed. To a question, he said inflation rate was 11.1 per cent in April, which now had dropped to 7.9 and the trend was continuing. In April food inflation rate was 15.7 per cent, which now had dropped to 5.8 per cent, he added.
So, there is no need for tightening the monetary policy at a stage when there is downward inflation trends, he maintained.