PICTURE: RADIO PAKISTAN
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb Khan on Monday released the National Economic Survey, claiming that the country was moving towards economic stability with the GDP growth standing at 2.7 percent and inflation rate down to 4.6 percent.
Speaking to the media, he said last year the policy rate was 22 percent which had now come down to 11 percent.
The minister said reforms were necessary to improve the economy, adding the tax-to-GDP ratio was at a five-year high and the government had made reforms to improve the performance of the FBR.
He said every transformation takes two to three years, there has been a historic recovery in one year in power sector reforms, governance of power distribution companies has improved.
Inflation rate in Pakistan is currently at 4.6 percent. The minister said the purpose of the IMF program was macroeconomic stability. Pakistan made a recovery in GDP growth compared to global growth, global inflation was 6.8pc two years ago, which is now 0.3pc while Pakistan’s inflation rate is currently 4.6 percent.
He said the current financial year had seen a spectacular increase in the exchange reserves. We have to move towards the stability of GDP now; we are currently moving in a better direction, he added.
The minister said the development of local resources was a priority. The growth in the construction sector was 1.3 per cent which was 3 per cent last year. the growth rate of large-scale manufacturing decreased to 1.5 percent, while the textile growth increased to 2.2 per cent.
The minister said that there was a decrease of 13.49 percent in major crops. Cotton production declined by 30%, wheat by 8.9% and sugarcane by 3.9%, maize by 15.4%, rice by 1.4%, potato by 11.5% and onion by 15.9%.
According to the Economic Survey, the growth of petroleum products was 4.5 percent, chemical growth was 5.5 percent, pharmaceuticals growth was 2.3 percent, mining and quarrying growth was 3.4 percent.
The report stated that during July-March, 0.8 percent of the GDP was spent on education, Rs61.1 billion was allocated for higher education, and the overall literacy rate was 60.6 percent, of which male literacy rate was 68 percent and female 52.8 percent. The enrollment at the primary level has reached 2.483 crore.
The Economic Survey said that there are 269 universities in Pakistan, of which 160 are public and 109 are private. Under the Skill Development Program, more than 60,000 youth were trained in the fields of IT, agriculture, mining, construction.
The report says that Pakistan’s share in global greenhouse gas emissions is less than 1%, floods affected 3.3 crore people and caused losses of $15 billion. The average temperature of the year 2024 in Pakistan was 23.52 degrees while Pakistan received more than 31% rainfall in the year 2024.
