Pakistan witnesses strong economic growth: Tarin

Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin said on Saturday that the country witnessed a strong V-Shaped growth despite being in a tough International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

In a tweet here the minister said that IMF programme was necessitated by unsustainable current account deficit and falling foreign currency reserves, and a vicious COVID-19. He expressed gratitude for Prime Minister, Imran Khan and his team for achieving this growth.

“A strong V growth despite being in a tough IMF programme, which was necessitated by unsustainable current account deficit and falling foreign currency reserves, and a vicious Covid 19. Well done team Imran Khan; Thumbs up @FinMinistryPak @GovtofPakistan,” he tweeted.

Chairman China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Lt. Gen. (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa on Saturday said all the major macroeconomic indicators were moving towards positive trajectory due to immense hard work by the government.

“Not without an immense hard work, Pakistan’s economy performed beyond expectations with all major macroeconomic indicators showing positive trend amid Covid-19 pandemic,” he said in a tweet.

Asim Bajwa said the hard work resulted in 3.94 per cent economic growth during the outgoing fiscal year.

It is pertinent to mention here that the National Accounts Committee (NAC) on Friday had estimated that the provisional growth rate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during the current fiscal year (2020-2021) was 3.94 per cent.

Due to a combination of GDP growth and strengthening of Pak rupee against the US dollar, per capita income of Pakistan jumped by 13.4 percent during the current fiscal year (2020-21) from $1361 to $1543.

The GDP increase from $263 billion to $296 billion, an increase of $33 billion during the current fiscal year, was the highest ever in any year.

The planning ministry said on Friday that its provisional estimate - up from Pakistan’s last forecast of 3% - was based on data for the year so far on growth in the agricultural, industrial and services sectors at 2.77%, 3.57%, and 4.43% respectively.

“This growth in a period in which COVID-19 placed a huge challenge to the economy is extremely gratifying,” minister for planning Asad Umar tweeted.

On Friday, the ministry also revised down GDP growth for the financial year that ended on June 30, 2020, to -0.47%, from -0.38%.

The IMF has estimated GDP for 2020/21 growing 1.5% and the World Bank estimates growth of 1.3%.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government is weeks away from presenting its annual budget which faces tough challenges on the fiscal deficit and an ambitious revenue collection target.

Due to a combination of GDP growth and strengthening of the Pakistani rupee against the dollar, Pakistan’s per capita income jumped by 13.4% this year from $1,361 to $1,543, Umar said.

Total GDP increased from $263 billion to $296 billion, the highest increase recorded in any year, he said.

The South Asian nation of 220 million people got into a $6 billion IMF stabilisation programme in 2019 months after Khan’s government delayed it.

Pakistan’s Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said the country is in talks with the IMF to seek easing of “tough conditions” on the loan.

GDP growth was 5.8% before Khan took power in 2018 with inflation below 4%, which was recorded in double digit last month. Some $2.5 billion of borrowing in international bond markets and historically high remittances have recently given some breathing space.

Pakistan economy got a boost as it received a record remittances from overseas Pakistani in the April. Remittances from Pakistani workers, employed abroad, rose to a record monthly high of $2.8 billion in April, 56% higher than a year earlier, the central bank said on Tuesday.

On a cumulative basis, remittances also surpassed the previous record. Proactive policy measures by the government and State Bank to encourage more inflows through banking channels, curtailed cross border travel due to the pandemic, and Eid holiday-related inflows contributed to the record levels of remittances this year, the central bank said.

The workers’ remittances surpassed previous records, reaching to $24.2 billion during the first ten months of the current fiscal year, showing growth of 29 per cent over the same period last year. The remittance during July-April (2020-21) also crossed the total remittances of the last fiscal year (2019-20) by over $1 billion, according to latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).