Hammad terms economic growth forecast of nearly 4pc a remarkable recovery

Federal Minister of Energy Hammad Azhar has called the National Accounts Committee (NAC) estimated GDP growth of 3.94% during the current fiscal year a ‘remarkable recovery.’

“On the basis of latest data, National Accounts Committee has estimated this fiscal year's GDP growth to be close to 4 percent,” said the federal minister in a statement on social media.

“This is a remarkable recovery,” he said. “And unlike past growth stints, forex reserves have also grown and the current account remains in surplus,” added Azhar. The minister was of the view that this was an industry-led growth.

The statement comes after the National Accounts Committee released the provisional estimates of the GDP and Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) for the year 2020-21 on the basis of latest data of 6-9 months which were annualized.

The provisional growth of GDP for the year 2020-21 has been estimated at 3.94% which is based upon growth estimates of the agricultural, industrial and services sectors at 2.77%, 3.57% and 4.43%, respectively. The growth for 2019-20 was revised downward from -0.38% to -0.47%.

As per the data, the overall industrial sector has witnessed a positive growth of 3.57%. The value added in the mining and quarrying sector has declined by 6.5%. The large scale manufacturing (LSM) sector, which is driven primarily by QIM data (from July 2020 to March 2021), showed an unprecedented healthy growth of 9.29%.

Whereas, GDP at current market prices has also been computed and stands at Rs.47,709 billion for 2020-21. This shows a growth of 14.8% over Rs.41,556 billion for 2019-20. The per capita income for 2020-21 has been calculated as Rs.246,414, showing a growth of 14.6% over Rs. 215,060 during 2019-20. The per capita income in dollar increased by 13.4% from USD 1,361 in 2019-20 to USD 1,543 in 2020-21.