Pak misses key economic target

Pakistan missed the key 5.1 per cent GDP growth target in the outgoing fiscal year ending on June 30, while the industrial sector performed well to surpass the targets.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar issued the Economic Survey 2015-16 ahead the next year budget which he would present in the parliament tomorrow.
Dar said that the government achieved several milestones but it missed some important economic targets including the promised GDP growth of 5.1 per cent.
"According to provisional estimates the GDP growth during 2015-16 remained at 4.71 per cent," he said.
Dar said that the failure of cotton crops and bad performance by the agriculture sector was responsible for missing the key target.

He said the cotton production was 28 per cent below the target which affected 0.5 per cent of national growth.

On the positive side, he said that targets in industrial and service sectors remained stable.
He said the industrial sector records growth at 6.8 per cent against the target of 6.4 per cent. Last year the growth in this sector was 4.8 per cent.
The services witnessed growth rate of 5.7 per cent as compared to 4.37 per cent last year.
He said that war on terror was another major reason for missing some targets as he accumulated expenses on war on terror have risen to over USD 118 billion in the last more than a decade.

However, the major worry was decline in the agriculture sector, as the agriculture growth stood at -0.19 per cent in 2015-16, as compared to 2.5 per cent during the last year.
The minister said that fiscal deficit during the nine-month period has remained 3.4 per cent as opposed to 3.8 per cent of the corresponding period last year.
He said inflation was expected to remain below 3 per cent.