The ongoing terrorism has cost the country's economy up to US $102.51 billion equivalent to Rs 8,264.40 billion during the last 13 years and US $28459.89 million during the last three consecutive fiscal years, revealed Pakistan Economic Survey 2013-14.
The annual economic survey released on Monday, stated that in order to assess the impact of the incidents of terrorism on the economy of Pakistan during the past several years, Finance Minister constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Adviser to Finance with Economic Adviser as Secretary/Member and also members from Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Inter-Provincial Co-ordination.
Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Commerce and other relevant departments have estimated the impact of conflict in Afghanistan and the ensuing terrorism on exports, foreign investment, privatisation, industrial output, tax collection etc and updated the estimates for FY12, FY13 and FY14. The break-up of estimates gives the following new estimates: US $11797.58 million for the FY 2011-12, US $9968.61 million for the FY 2012-13, and US $6693.70 million of the nine months [July-March] FY 2013-14.
During the last 13 years [2001-2014], the direct and indirect cost incurred by Pakistan due to incidents of terrorism amount to US $102.51 billion equivalent to Rs 8,264.40 billion, the Pakistan Economic Survey 2013-14 further revealed.
It further stated that the conflict and instability in Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11 incident and their regional implications had very negative repercussions for the years following the US invasion of Afghanistan which led to a huge influx of Afghan refugees across the border into Pakistan and a sudden spike in the frequency and scale of terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
The cumulative impact of these developments adversely impacted the overall growth rate in all major sectors of the economy. Pakistan continues to pay a heavy price both in the economic and security terms due to this situation and a substantial portion of precious national resources in both men and material, have been diverted to address the emerging security challenges for the last several years.
The rise of violent extremism and increase in terrorism in Pakistan due to instability in Afghanistan not only caused serious damage to Pakistan's economy but has also been responsible for wide-spread human suffering due to indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population.
This situation disrupted Pakistan's normal economic and trading activities which led to higher costs of business and created disruptions in the production cycles, resulting in significant delays in meeting the export orders around the globe. As a result, Pakistani products have gradually lost their market share to their competitors. Consequently, economic growth slowed down, demand for imports reduced with declined tax collection and inflows of foreign investment. Investment outflow and negative trends of out sourcing of capital in Pakistan has further added to the woes of dwindling performance of the export oriented industry.
Pakistan needs enormous resources to enhance productive capacity of the economy by repairing damaged infrastructure and to create a favourable investment climate. The security situation will be the key determinant of future flow of the investment. Pakistan's economy needs an early end to the conflict in Afghanistan as well as its negative impact in regions bordering Afghanistan in the form of violent extremism and terrorism for revival of the economy and to keep stability in the system, the Survey added.
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