ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has missed all the major targets including the provisional gross domestic product (GDP), which was set at 5 per cent for the current fiscal year.
The latest figures shared in a meeting of the National Accounts Committee (NAC) painted a bleak picture of the economy as the coalition government could not achieve any of the economic targets it promised to deliver during the outgoing fiscal year 2022-23.
In line with the projections of all the international financial institutions, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government has missed all the major targets of the current fiscal year.
The growth rate remained dismally low and stood at 0.29 per cent, the lowest increase in the last four years, against the revised figure of 6.1 per cent in the last financial year 2021-22.
It should be noted that this low level of growth will result in rising poverty and unemployment; however, there are no official figures available on these two important fronts.
The size of the GDP in the rupee term stood at Rs38.927 trillion for the outgoing fiscal year against Rs38.814 trillion in the last fiscal year 2021-22.
Dr Nadeem Javaid, Planning Commission’s Chief Economist while talking to media that the devastating floods, lingering political instability, global recession and Ukraine war accelerated the woes for the Pakistan economy but the resilience shown by the country’s different economic sectors produced a slight positive growth in the current fiscal year.
The NAC meeting held under the chairmanship of Secretary Planning Syed Zafar Ali Shah, approved the provisional figures:
GDP growth rate — 0.29 per cent
Agriculture growth — 1.55 per cent
Industrial sector — -2.94 per cent
Services sector — 0.86 per cent
Reportedly there was immense pressure on the officials of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and other high-ups for turning the GDP growth from negative to positive.
It started from negative 1 per cent to negative 0.5 per cent but finally, the NAC approved a positive GDP growth figure of 0.29 per cent after a lot of debate among the Ministry of Finance, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Ministry of Planning high-ups.
The negative growth trajectory was turned into a positive as eyebrows raised over the education sector growth figure of 10.44 per cent. Human health and social work-related activities also suddenly achieved 8.49 per cent growth in the current fiscal year.
Out of the agriculture sector growth of positive 1.55 per cent, the growth of important crops remained negative 2.49 per cent but the production of wheat at 27.6 million tons helped the agri sector achieve positive growth.
The cotton achieved just 4.5 million bales and achieved negative 41 per cent growth. The livestock sector posted positive growth of 3.78 per cent.
Out of the industrial sector, the large-scale manufacturing growth remained negative at 7.98 per cent but interestingly small-scale manufacturing achieved positive growth of 9.03 per cent. The construction sector contracted by 5.53 per cent.
The electricity generation and gas distribution sector grew 6.03 per cent which also raised eyebrows. The services sector grew by 0.86 per cent. The wholesale and retail trade clinched negative growth of 4.46 per cent.
When the PBS Chief Dr Naeem Uz Zafar was inquired whether there was any pressure on the PBS for achieving positive growth, he said that there was no pressure from any side and they had done their work professionally to achieve the provisional growth figures.
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