Former Finance minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Pasaha has warned that negative growth in manufacturer and agriculture sectors in last six months serious threat to economic growth. "These two sectors are the engine of growth, economic and social stability and sustainable development of any country", he pointed out.
Talking to Business Recorder on Thursday, Dr Pasha pointed out that agriculture sector recorded negative growth of two percent during 2015-16 against growth of 2.53 percent last year. Agriculture sector accounts for 19.82 percent of GDP and 42.3 percent of employment with strong backward and forward linkages.
He said the large scale manufacturing sector has gone into negative or nominal growth since April 2016. There are absolutely no indicators that with only 2 to 3 percent increase in electricity production the government would achieve its target of 6 percent growth in this sector in 2016-17. Dr Pasha told this scribe that if the country's foreign current reserves were $23 billion then sale of Sukuk bonds worth $1 billion was unnecessary. The government has already borrowed $12 billion from the IMF during the past three years and it was not a wise policy to further burden the country with $1billion more loan. He further pointed out that foreign currency reserves of $24 billion are hundred percent foreign loans.