E-Paper
Pakistan GDP to grow at 6.5% in current fiscal: PM
Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said GDP will grow 6.5 per cent in current fiscal but inflation is at an alarming 9.2 per cent.
Pakistan's GDP will grow 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal but inflation is at an alarming 9.2 per cent, according to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
Agriculture will grow by four per cent and large-scale manufacturing (LSM) by 12 per cent, Daily Times on Thursday quoted Aziz as saying at an Iftar dinner on Wednesday.
"The budget deficit is projected to be 3.2 per cent of GDP, and exports and imports are targeted to grow by 9.1 per cent and 20.7 per cent respectively," he said.
He attributed the high inflation rate to "demand side pressure on the one hand and supply side shocks (rising food and fuel prices) on the other".
Overall, he maintained, Pakistan was witnessing extraordinary buoyancy in its economy - a higher-than-targeted 6.4 per cent growth in real GDP supported by stellar LSM growth and a reduction of 2.4 per cent (of GDP) in the fiscal deficit.
On the agriculture side, the prime minister said a bumper cotton crop was expected as a preliminary estimate suggested output of 12.1 million bales, the highest since 1991-92.
He said the private sector was taking full advantage of the "conducive" macro-economic environment.
"The private sector has so far borrowed Rs 83 billion compared to Rs 54 billion for the same period last year," he said. Remittances had been a major source of foreign exchange earnings, with $983 million received in the first quarter.
The prime minister said foreign direct investment continued to rise as well.
"During the first quarter of this year, we have received $181 million as against $117 million last year," he said.
