By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar said on Friday that Pakistan’s GDP growth has come in at 3.94 per cent.
In a Twitter message, Asad Umar said that the national accounts committee has finalised the GDP growth estimate, adding, “Alhamdulillah the GDP growth has come in at 3.94%.”
He said that the GDP growth in a period in which COVID-19 placed a huge challenge to the economy is extremely gratifying and proof of the success of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s economic policies.
In another tweet, Asad Umar said that per capita of Pakistan jumped by 13.4 per cent this year from $1361 to $1543 due to a combination of GDP growth and strengthening of the Pakistani rupee against the US dollar. “Total GDP increase from $263 billion to $296 billion an increase of $33 billion which is the highest ever increase in any year.”
Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had forecast a four per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for Pakistan in 2022.
In its World Economic Outlook report – released at the start of the IMF’s and World Bank’s spring meetings- the international body had shared that the GDP growth for Pakistan remained at negative (-)0.4 per cent during 2020.
It further said that the GDP growth would remain at 1.5 per cent during the ongoing fiscal year and would witness an upward trend to touch the four per cent mark in 2022.
The monetary body had said that the rate of inflation remained at 10.7 per cent in the country during 2020, and would witness a decline in 2021 to 8.7 per cent and a further downward trend to 8 per cent in 2022.
Further commenting on the unemployment ratio in the country, the IMF report highlighted that joblessness would remain around five per cent in the country this fiscal year and would follow a declining trend in 2022 to remain at 4.8 per cent.
The Fund’s report had highlighted that the positive trend in the current account would continue and predicted that the current account balance would remain at 1.5 per cent of the GDP.
Last year, the federal government had set GDP growth rate target at 2.3 percent for the current fiscal year.
According to details, the current year growth target for agriculture sector was being set at 2.9 percent with major crops contributing 2.2 percent of it. “The growth rate for cotton is being set at 1.3 percent,” showed the budget document as it predicted 3.5 percent growth rate for livestock sector in the next fiscal year.
The federal government had predicted 1.5 percent growth rate for forest sector, 2.1 percent for fishing, 0.1 percent for industries and 0.5 percent for minerals sector.
The budgetary document for the current fiscal year has forecast a negative 0.7 growth rate for manufacturing sector.
The growth rate predicted for the energy and construction sector stand at 1.4 percent and 3.5 percent respectively as services sector is estimated to grow at the rate of 2.8 percent during the current fiscal year.
