Pakistan economy undergoes V-shaped recovery amid smart lockdown success, says Azhar

Pakistan's economy is reaping the dividends of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s smart lockdown strategy, says Federal Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar.

“Presently, our automobile industry, exports sector, construction sector and sectors related to it are moving on an upward trajectory. Overall the economy has undergone a V-shaped recovery, which is a good sign,” said Azhar, in an interview to DMW.

The federal minister was of the view that apart from COVID, the industrial figures in this fiscal year has shown a lot of improvement as compared to the previous year.

“We need to sustain this growth, and mitigate the supply shocks which have emerged due to COVID, we are especially smoothening out the supply shocks we observed in some food items,” he said.

The government also wants to increase its revenue generation, and there are ample signs of improvement. Our trade balance is also improving due to rise in exports and decline in imports, said Azhar.

“We are also expecting a GDP growth of around 2 percent this year, which is significantly high as compared to regional countries including India and Bangladesh,” he said.

Earlier, in a tweet post the minister said that Pakistan's current account surpluses post COVID lockdowns are a good sign. “They bode well for our forex reserve levels and economic stability,” he said.

“Last fiscal year we reduced the current account deficit to around $3bn. We inherited this figure at $20bn,” he added.