Cash-strapped Pak meets half GDP target, FY2018-19 growth at 3.3%: Report

Pakistan's economy registered a dismal 3.3 per cent growth in 2018-19, achieving just over 50 per cent of its projected target, as all key sectors failed to perform in the first year of Prime Minister Imran Khan's government, according to media reports on Friday.

The poor show came as the cash-strapped Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government was negotiating a bail out package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to tide over the country's economic woes.

The National Accounts Committee, in its 101st meeting chaired by Secretary Planning, Development and Reform Zafar Hasan - to review the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - came out with the growth figures for the year 2018-19.

The government has anticipated 3.8 per cent growth rate in agriculture, 7.6 per cent in industry and 6.5 per cent in services, thus set up a target of 6.2 per cent GDP growth, the Dawn reported.

In a major setback to the government, all these targets fell flat, it said.

"It shows the dismal performance of the overall economy in the first year of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government," the report said.

"The provisional growth of GDP for the year 2018-19 has been estimated at 3.3 per cent. Growth of agricultural, industrial and services sectors is 0.85 per cent, 1.4 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively," the report said quoting official figures.

Provisional estimates for the year 2018-19 for the GDP and the Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) have been presented on the basis of the latest data available for six to nine months.

As per the data, acute water shortages during the first half of the 2018 hit the crop segment, as a result only wheat crop showed positive growth of 0.5 per cent while cotton, rice and sugarcane registered a negative growth of 17.5 per cent, 3.3 per cent, and 19.4 per cent, respectively, the report said.

Other crops showed a growth of 1.95 per cent mainly because of increase in production of pulses and oil seeds.

Livestock sector registered a growth of 4 per cent while forestry 6.5 per cent due to increase in production of timber.

Agriculture sector was targeted to grow by 3.8 per cent on the basis of expected contributions of Important Crops (3 per cent), other crops (3.5 per cent), cotton ginned (8.9 per cent), livestock (3.8 per cent), fisheries (1.8 per cent) and forestry (8.5 per cent).

All these targets were missed except the one related to livestock, Dawn reported.

The overall industrial sector on the other hand showed a growth of 1.4 per cent while mining and quarrying sector declined by 1.96 per cent.

The large scale manufacturing (LSM) sector, which is driven primarily by QIM data (from July 2018 to February 2019), showed a contraction of 2.1 per cent, it said.

The country's electricity and gas sub-sector grew by 40.5 per cent mainly due to better performance of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) distribution companies and Independent Power Producers(IPPs).

The construction activity decreased by 7.6 per cent.

The country's industrial sector is targeted to grow by 7.6 per cent during 2018-19, while manufacturing sector by 7.8pc with LSM growth rate of 8.1 per cent, small scale and household manufacturing 8.2 per cent, construction 10 per cent and electricity generation and distribution and gas distribution by 7.5 per cent.

Service sector remained major contributor to economic growth as its value added increased by 4.7 per cent. Within services sector, wholesale and retail trade sector grew by 3.1 per cent whereas transport, storage and communication sector has registered a growth of 3.3 per cent, the report said.

Finance and insurance sector showed an overall increase of 5.1pc on account of positive contributions from scheduled banks (5.3 per cent), non-schedule banks (24.6 per cent) and insurance activities (12.8 per cent) despite decline in central banking by 12.5 per cent, it said.

General government services has grown by 7.99 per cent and other private services, a set of computer related activities, education, health and social work, NGOs etc. has contributed positively at 7.1 per cent, according to Dawn.