Indicators show economy witnessing significant growth

ISLAMABAD: At a time when the world economic growth rate has been hit hard by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) shocks, the economy of Pakistan has been showing significant progress as indicated by various indicators, depicting prudent polices of the government in running the country in these crisis times.

According to official figures, the Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) witnessed growth of 7.41 percent during the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year compared to the corresponding period of last year. While on year-on-year basis, the LSMI grew by 14.46 percent in November 2020 as compared to November 2019.

The monthly inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), decelerated to 8 percent on year-on-year (YoY) basis in December 2020, from 8.3 percent during November. On month-on-month (MoM) basis, it decreased by 0.7% in December as compared to an increase of 0.8 percent in November 2020 and a decrease of 0.3 percent in December 2019.

On revenue side, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collected taxes of Rs.2204 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year as against the revenues of Rs2101 during the corresponding period of fiscal year 2019-20, showing growth of 5 percent.

The tax collection on year-on-year basis increased by 8.3 percent during the month of December 2020 compared to same month of last year. The collection during December 2020 was recorded at Rs508 billion against Rs469 billion in December 2019.

Meanwhile, the remittances from overseas Pakistanis during December 2020 rose by 16.2 per cent year-on-year to $2.436 billion, compared to $2.097bn in December 2019. The remittances remained above $2 billion for the seventh consecutive month.

The remittance during the first half of the current fiscal year increased by 24.9 percent to $14.2bn against the remittances of $11.372 billion during July-December (2019-20).

Meanwhile, the overall, liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $20,519 million as on January 08, 2020 compared to $ 18,658.1 in January 2020, showing increase of 9.97 percent.

The country’s exports increased by 4.98 percent during the first half (H1) of the current fiscal year (2020-21) as compared to the corresponding period of last year. The exports from the country during July-December (2020-21) were recorded at $12.098 billion against the exports of $11.524 billion during July-December (2019-20), according to the latest PBS data.

During the month of December 2020, the exports went up to $2.366 billion against the exports of $1.988 billion in December 2019, showing growth of 19.01 percent.

Likewise, Pakistan’s Current Account Balance posted a surplus of $447 million in November 2021 against a deficit of $326 million in same month of the previous year.

On average, the surplus during the period July-November (2020-21) has risen to $1.6 billion compared to a deficit of $1.7 billion over the same period last year.