Thursday May 25, 2023
The growth rate will decrease to 0.29% in FY 2022-23.
A low level of growth will result in increasing poverty, unemployment.
The agricultural sector is growing by 1.6%.
ISLAMABAD: The latest data shared with the National Accounts Committee (NAC) painted a bleak picture of the economy as the coalition government could not achieve any of the economic targets it had promised to meet during the outgoing fiscal year 2022-23, The News reported.
In line with the projections of all international financial institutions, the government under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif failed to meet all major targets including the provisional gross domestic product (GDP) which was set at 5% for the current fiscal year.
The growth rate remained dismally low at 0.29% - the lowest increase in four years - against a revised figure of 6.1% in the last financial year 2021-22.
It should be noted that this low level of growth will lead to an increase in poverty and unemployment; however, no official data is available on these two important fronts.
The GDP size in rupee terms stood at Rs 38.927 trillion in the outgoing fiscal year against Rs 38.814 trillion in the last fiscal year 2021-22.
Chief Economist of the Planning Commission Dr. Nadeem Javaid told reporters that devastating floods, ongoing political instability, the global recession and the war in Ukraine have accelerated the woes of Pakistan's economy, but the resilience of individual economic sectors in the country has caused modest positive growth in the current fiscal policy. year.
The National Accounts Committee, which met under the chairmanship of Planning Secretary Syed Zafar Ali Shah, approved the provisional figures:
GDP growth rate — 0.29%
Agriculture growth - 1.55%
Industrial sector — -2.94%
Service sector — 0.86%
Allegedly, huge pressure was exerted on Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) officials and other senior companies to change the GDP growth from negative to positive.
It started from negative 1% to negative 0.5% but finally the NAC approved a positive GDP growth of 0.29% after much debate between the Ministries of Finance, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Ministry of Planning.
Fiscal Year 2021-22 Fiscal Year 2022-23
GDP 6.1% 0.29%
Industries 6.83% -2.9%
LSM 11.90%
-7.98%
Services 6.59%
0.85%
Construction 1.90%
-5.53%
Livestock 2.25%
3.78%
Cotton ginning 9.22%
-23%
The negative growth trajectory turned positive as eyebrows were raised over the education sector's growth of 10.44%. The activities related to health and social care also suddenly achieved a growth of 8.49% in the current fiscal year.
Out of the positive 1.55% growth of the agriculture sector, the growth of major crops remained negative at 2.49%, but wheat production of 27.6 million tonnes helped the agro sector achieve positive growth.
Cotton reached just 4.5 million bales, posting negative 41% growth. The livestock sector showed a positive growth of 3.78%.
From the industrial sector, the growth of large-scale manufacturing remained negative at 7.98%, but interestingly, small-scale manufacturing achieved a positive growth of 9.03%. Construction fell by 5.53%.
The electricity generation and gas distribution sector grew by 6.03%, which also raised eyebrows. The service sector grew by 0.86%. Wholesale and retail trade secured a negative growth of 4.46%.
When the head of PBS Dr. Asked if there is any pressure on PBS to achieve positive growth, Naeem Uz Zafar said there is no pressure from any side and they have done their work professionally to achieve provisional growth numbers.
