ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s economy stagnated for the second year in a row, recording a growth rate of only 2.4%, while inflation has reached 26%, poverty is at its extremes.
The 109th meeting of the National Accounts Committee (NAC) was chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Planning Owais Manzoor Samra. Exceeding the targets of international financial institutions, the IMF sees a growth rate of 1.8 percent for the current fiscal year.
The economy shrank by 0.21 percent in the last financial year, which has recovered due to improvement in the agriculture sector, while the industrial and services sector’s growth rate has not improved, marking the second consecutive year of low growth. , but the rate of inflation is high, which has eroded the purchasing power of the people, with an average inflation rate of 26 percent during the last 10 months.
According to World Bank estimates, the poverty rate is 40 percent, while another 10 million people could be pushed below the poverty line. For the next fiscal year, the government is planning to keep the GDP growth rate at 3.7 percent and the inflation rate at 11.8 percent. Is.
According to the NAC, the agricultural sector recorded a growth of 6.3 percent thanks to excellent harvests, while the industrial sector grew at 1.21 percent. , where the performance of all sectors except agriculture has been poor, the performance of large industries, which play an important role in tax and employment generation.
After a 10% decline in growth last year, it has remained stable at the same rate this year, electricity, gas and water supply sectors have shrunk by 11%, electricity consumption has significantly decreased due to expensive electricity, the construction sector has During the current financial year, the growth rate was 5.9%, which was 9% last year, the growth rate of services sector was 1.21%, wholesale and retail sector 0.3%, transport 1.2%, food services 4.1%. And the real estate sector recorded a growth rate of 3.8 percent, while information and communication shrank by 3 percent, financial and insurance activities saw a contraction of 9.6 percent.
In the light of available data, NAC also approved the growth rate of 2.71% for the first quarter, 1.8% for the second quarter and 2.1% for the third quarter
