ISLAMABAD: The country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recorded ten-year highest growth of 5.3 percent during the outgoing fiscal year (2016-17) in the wake of growth-oriented initiatives and prudent economic policies, introduced by the PML-N government.
"Pakistan has seen a visible turnaround over the last four years due to successful implementation of a comprehensive programme of economic revival," Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar said while launching Pakistan Economic Survey for the outgoing fiscal year (2016-17) here this afternoon.
The minister - flanked by Secretary Finance Division, Tariq Bajwa, Parliamentary Secretary for Finance, Rana Afzal and other officials of the ministry - said as compared to 2013, the country's economy was in an impressive condition today, achieving higher growth, also endorsed by the world.
"The growth rate was just 3 percent in 2013, which has now risen to 5.3 percent and this growth is also being acknowledged at the world level," he said.
The Finance Minister said that the overall size of country's economy has crossed the threshold of $300 billion during the current year, which was a healthy sign.
Keeping in view the current pace of economic growth, the GDP growth rate target for the upcoming year (2017-18) has been fixed at 6 percent, the minister said hoping that the target would not only be achieved but also exceed.
He said that during the outgoing year (2016-17), the agriculture sector posted a growth of 3.46 per cent, which was a positive sign and attributed the growth to Kissan Package announced in the last budget.
Dar said cotton production grew by 7.6 percent, wheat by 0.5 percent, rice 0.7 percent, sugarcane 4.4 percent and maize 16.3 percent.
The livestock sector, he said, witnessed growth of 3.43 percent, while fishing and forestry sector grew by 1.23 percent and 14.49 percent respectively.
Agricultural Credit disbursement in 2016-17 grew by 22.7 percent as compared to the same period of last year.
Dar said the large scale manufacturing grew by 5.06 percent compared to 4.64 percent last year.
He said the headline inflation Consumer Price Index (CPI) averaged at 4.1 percent during July-April 2017 against target of 6 percent, showing that inflation will remain below the target.
He said during the current fiscal year, Pakistan's imports showed rising trend at relatively fast rate (18.7 percent) due to increased economic activity as part of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
He said that as per the estimates the import by end of this fiscal year would remain at $45.4 billion.
The finance minister said remittances reached $14.1 billion compared to $14.4 billion last year, adding that the capital and financial accounts recorded surplus of $5.1 billion, which was significantly higher than the surplus of $3.6 billion last year.
In October of fiscal year 2017, he said, foreign exchange reserves hit all time high at $24.3 billion, of which net reserves with State Bank of Pakistan were $18.93 billion and scheduled bank $5.10 billion.
The high level of foreign exchange reserves, a sign of economic stability, has been achieved due to deep-rooted and comprehensive foreign policies and reforms, undertaken by the government.
The minister said the foreign direct investment grew by 12.4 percent and reached $1.6 billion in a nine-month period.
The per capita income in dollar terms has increased from $ 1,531 in FY 2016 to $ 1,629 in FY 2017, showing an increase of 6.4 percent in FY 2017.
Dar said the government took a number of growth-oriented measures to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth, adding that the initiatives included National Power Policy, Kissan Package, Automotive Policy, Textile Policy, Strategic Trade Policy Framework 2015-18, Domestic Resource Mobilization Strategy, Public Sector Entity Reforms Strategy, CPEC and National Financial inclusion strategy.
Talking about fiscal development, the minister said, the government focused on correcting the fiscal imbalances by adopting prudent expenditures management and revenue mobilization strategy.
Overall fiscal deficit narrowed to 4.6 percent of GDP in FY 2016, reflecting sustainable consolidation since FY2013. The minister said that during July-March FY2016-17, fiscal deficit stood at 3.9 percent of GDP.
The minister said that during July-March FY17, total expenditures stood at Rs. 4,383.6 billion (13.8 percent of GDP) against Rs3,971.3 billion (13.6 percent of GDP) in the same period of last year.
The expenditures under PSDP have posted a growth of 19.8 percent and reached to Rs. 746.6 billion in nine months compared to Rs. 623.4 billion last year.
Total revenues, Dar said, are expected to reach Rs. 5,347.1 billion, of which the tax revenues are budgeted to remain at Rs. 4,306.1 billion and non-tax revenues at Rs. 1,041 billion during the current year.
He added that during the period from July-March, total revenues stood at Rs. 3,145.5 billion against Rs. 2,961.9 billion in the same period of last year, showing growth of 6.2 percent.
The investment to GDP has reached to 15.78 percent during the financial year 2016-17 and reached to the level of Rs. 5026 billion compared to the investment of Rs. 4526 billion last year.
The minister said that keeping in view the macroeconomic stability during July-March, SBP maintained the policy rate at 5.75 percent, which is the lowest rate since early 1970s.
The minister said that Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) has been ranked first in Asia and fifth best performing market in the world in year 2016 as assessed by Bloomberg, adding that PSX touched 53,000 level on May 24.
The market capitalization increased from Rs. 7,588.47 billion on June 30, 2016 to Rs10,044.07 billion on May 8, 2017, he said adding that the market outperformed during the current year among leading global stock markets, more specially in Asian region.
Referring to the social safety nets, the minister said that government has prioritized 17 pro-poor sectors through the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). Expenditure on pro-poor sectors in 2012-13 was Rs1913.3 billion, which is 8.5 percent of the GDP.
During 2015-16, total expenditures of these sectors reached to Rs. 2,694.7 billion, which was 9.3 percent of GDP.
The minister said that during the nine months of the current fiscal year, Rs. 1,017.5 billion expenditures have been made in these sectors.
He said that the number of beneficiaries in BISP has increased from 1.7 million in FY2009 to 5.42 million this year, adding the disbursements increased from Rs. 16 billion in FY2009 to Rs. 115 billion this year.
He said that the government had also special focus on education, health and nutrition and a number of programmes have been implemented during the outgoing fiscal year for the development of these sectors.
Pakistan has achieved progressive and significant improvement in country's overall security due to successful counter terrorism efforts of the government under framework of comprehensive National Action Plan (NAP), backed by an extensive and highly effective counter terrorism operation Zarb-e-Azb by armed forces, and actions by other security and law enforcement agencies and intelligence-based operations across the country.
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