The government has missed Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth set target of 6.2 percent as the country's GDP growth during the fiscal year 2018-19 remained 3.3 percent. This was revealed in the 101st meeting of the National Accounts Committee (NAC), which was held here under the chairmanship of federal secretary Planning, Development and Reforms. The meeting was held to review the provisional estimates for the year 2018-19 for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF).
The GDP growth target for the fiscal year was set at 6.2 percent, while the government has attained only 3.3 percent GDP growth.
According to handout released by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform, the agriculture sector growth target was set at 3.8 percent which hardly managed to grow by one percent. Similarly, the manufacturing and services sectors also missed set growth targets as services sector showed a growth of 4 percent against the set target of 6.6 percent and manufacturing sector missed set target of 7.6 percent for the fiscal year 2018-19.
The officials of Pakistan Bureau of Statistic presented the essential data regarding the GDP and GFCF on the basis of the latest figures available for six to nine months.
The crop sector faced the consequences of acute water shortage during the first half of the 2018 and thus only wheat depicted a positive growth of 0.5 percent. While all other crops including onion, tomato and fruits showed a growth of 1.95 percent mainly because of increase in production of pulses and oil seeds.
Livestock sector registered a growth of 4 percent whereas forestry has grown at 6.5 percent due to increase in production of timber.
The overall industrial sector on the other hand showed an increase of 1.4 percent, electricity and gas sub sectors have grown massively mainly due to better performance of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), distribution companies and IPPs.
The construction activity has decreased by 7.6%. Services sector remained major contributor to economic growth as its value added increased by 4.7 percent. Within services sector, wholesale and retail trade sector grew by 3.1 percent whereas transport, storage and communication sector registered a growth of 3.3 percent.
Finance and insurance sector showed an overall increase of 5.1 percent with major positive contributions from scheduled banks by 5.3 percent, non-schedule banks by 24.6 percent and insurance activities by 12.8 percent despite decline in central banking by 12.5 percent. The general government services witnessed a growth of 7.99 percent and other private services, a set of computer related activities, education, health & social work, NGOs and others registered a growth of 7.1 percent.