ISLAMABAD: Owing to the prudent polices and corrective measures introduced by the government to ensure financial discipline in the country, Pakistan has become eligible for availing the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) funding.
After a lapse of three years, the country was able to receive the facility mainly owing to significant increase in growth rate, revenues, low inflation, cut in budget deficit and surging foreign exchange reserves.
As Pakistan is now maintaining foreign exchange reserves of more than 2.5 months of projected imports and satisfied other criteria of World Bank under the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS), it will now be able to avail US$ 02 billion worth of IBRD funding during the period 2015-19.
The major world economic institutions including World Bank have appreciated the continuous improvement in the macro-economic indicators saying that due to untiring efforts of the government, the economic position of the country improved considerably which played a pivotal role in restoration of this facility.
The macro-economic indicators are showing resilience besides economy is heading towards stability and development as government has provided enabling environment to the business community by eliminating terrorism and extremism from the country.
These measures have also helped to enhance forex reserves to record higher level which boosted the confidence of foreign as well as local investors besides other landing agencies and development partners.
The corrective measures taken by the country's leadership brought the economy back on track and on February 11 this year, the reserves touched $16 billion including over $11 billion with State Bank of Pakistan.
While the Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar has also expressed his resolve to take foreign reserves to $17 billion soon.
For the first time in six years, GDP growth rate exceeded 4 percent (4.14%) in the financial year 2013-14.
A significant improvement has also been witnessed in Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) while the inflation was recorded at single digit, according to official data.
According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation increased by 3.88 percent during January 2015 over January 2014, which was the lowest percentage of inflation recorded after the revision of base year in 2007-2008.
"The economic growth has been possible due to political stability, good governance and the will of the nation to eliminate terrorism, as indicated by the ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb," believed economic experts.
Main indicator of a well-performing economy is stock market. The performance of Karachi Stock Exchange proves economic growth as its index has touched a historic level of 34,000 points. It shows investors' confidence in the country's economy.
Overseas workers' remittances also swelled by 14.6 percent to $10.3 billion during the first seven months of current fiscal year (2014-15).
The remittances during the same period of previous year. were $9 billion, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Likewise, the production of Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector, which is another major indicator of economic growth, increased by 2.65 percent during the first half of current fiscal year over corresponding period of last year and 2.35 percent in December 2014 as compared to December 2013.
Increased outputs of textile, food, electronics, chemicals, pharmaceutical, automobiles and leather products were the major contributors in this regard, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The exports also grew in January 2015 by 0.15 percent as compared to January 2014.
Though the overall goods trade deficit increased, but the same in services decreased by 20.7 percent during first half of the current fiscal year.
The revenue collection too witnessed significant growth of 14 percent in the fist half of current fiscal year from Rs. 1031 billion last year to Rs 1,162 billion, according to provisional data of Federal Board of Revenue. The number of taxpayers have also been increased to 120,000.
The agriculture credit was recorded at Rs.128.090 billion from July to October (2014-15) compared to Rs.91.230 billion in the same period of last year, showing growth of 40.4 percent.
The incorporation of companies during July to November 2014 were 1,723 compared to 1,534, last year a growth of 12.23 percent.
The Development spending from July to January (2014-15) stood at Rs227.118 billion compared to the spending of Rs. 182.597 billion in the same period of last year.
Due to efforts of the government, the exchange rate viz-a-viz US dollar was brought down from Rs.109 to Rs .98 while Pak rupee is still trading at around Rs101 per US dollar.
It may be added that the country is hoping to attract investment of 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in next five years for sustainable economic development.
Currently the foreign investment into country is about 14 percent of GDP, which will be increased by 1 percent every year, said official sources.
Pakistan has already signed a number of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) and agreements with China that are expected to bring an investment of about $34 billion in the years to come.
Similarly, allocations for the National Income Support Programme (NISP) was increased from Rs.40 billion to Rs.118 billion, monthly stipend was increased from Rs.1000 to Rs.1500 while the number of beneficiaries was increased from 4.1 million to 4.8 million and will be raised to 5.3 million beneficiaries.
For the first time the government has published a parliamentarians' tax directory as well as general tax directory and now Pakistan is the fourth country in the world to do so.
The government successfully completed divestment of shares in UBL, ABL and PPL while after a gap of five years, multilateral donors like World Bank, Asian Development Bank started providing credit to Pakistan for balance of payment support as well as specific projects.
The government also managed obtain financing for Dasu Hydropower project while a Business Opportunities meeting for exploring financing option for Diamer Bhasha Dam was organized October 2014 in Washington.
International think tanks and research groups like JETRO declared Pakistan second in terms of business growth, Goldman Sach's Jim O'Neil forecast that Pakistan would be world's 18th largest economy by 2050.
OICCI raised index from -34 to +2, Moody's raised outlook from negative to stable, Nielsen's Gold Survey of Consumer Confidence rose to 99 in the first quarter of 2014 from the lowest level of 86 in third quarter of 2011 and IFR Asia 2014 declared Pakistan issuer of the year.
The positive ratings have recognized Pakistan's impressive economic turnaround.
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