Miftah expresses satisfaction over economic indicators, as growth rate touches 13 year highest

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Dr. Miftah Ismail Tuesday expressed satisfaction on the latest economic indicators as economy has registered 13 years high growth rate.

In a statement here on Tuesday, he said the economy has registered a 13 years high growth of 5.79 percent in FY2018.

It may be recalled that the economy had stagnated during 2008-13 with an average growth rate of 2.82 percent.

Due to the policies pursued by the PML-N government, the growth rate improved to 4.05% in the first year and has since maintained an upward trajectory, culminating in the current years’ highest growth rate of 5.79 percent.

The average increase during the last five years has been 4.76%, the statement added.

Industrial sector maintained its upward growth trajectory at 5.8 percent, which is the highest level of growth in the last 10 years.

Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) touched 6.13 percent growth during the first eight months of the CFY, which is the highest in last 11 years.

The contribution of sugar production, where crushing started later than usual, is likely to further improve the final numbers for the year.

Agriculture sector has also preformed impressively and achieved 3.8 percent growth which is again the highest in the last 13 years while production of all major crops registered significant growth.

The services sector has achieved 6.43 percent growth during current fiscal year, the second year in a row that its growth is above 6 percent.

Inflation is contained at 3.85 percent during first nine months of current fiscal year.

The government has therefore been successful in achieving its objective of high growth and low inflation.

The containment of inflation is due to effective monetary and stabilization policies adopted by the government.

The current trend suggests that, inflation will remain below the target of 6 percent during current fiscal year, the statement added.

The adviser noted that the external sector was also improving with the exports gradually picking up and growth in imports slowing down.

He said that during March 2018 exports had shown a 24 percent growth year on year, while imports had increased by 6 percent.

At the same time foreign remittances were also maintaining the increasing trend.