Pakistan targets 5.5 per cent GDP growth in 2017: FM says

Pakistan, which has for the first time completed all reform steps of the IMF, is back on track to attain macro-economic stability and aims a GDP growth of 5.5 per cent this year, Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar has said.

In 2013, Pakistan was facing challenges of unstable macro-economic situation with the GDP growth at only 3 per cent, foreign reserves below USD 8 billion, spiraling circular debt, crippling energy shortages and fiscal deficit of 8.8 per cent, Dar said while addressing the closing ceremony of an event here at the Governor's House.

However, the government set priorities right by focusing on '4 Es' - Energy, Economy, Elimination of Extremism and Education, he said, underlining that Pakistan was now back on the road to macro-economic stability to achieve higher sustainable and inclusive growth.
 

Dar said that for the first time Pakistan successfully completed all the 12 reform steps of EFF (Extended Fund Facility) Programme of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) asserting that growth momentum continued to remain above four per cent for the third year in a row and the GDP growth was registered 4.71 per cent in FY 2016, which is the highest in eight years.

The target for the GDP growth in FY 2017 is around 5.5 per cent and 7 per cent during FY 2018-19, he was quoted as saying by The News International.

International organisations, he said, had also recognised Pakistan's economic turnaround.

While the IMF had raised its GDP growth forecast for Pakistan for FY 2017 from 4.7 to 5 per cent and projected GDP growth of 5.5 per cent; Asian Development Bank (ADB) raised its GDP forecast for 2017 from 4.8 per cent to 5.2 per cent and the World Bank projected 5.2 per cent GDP growth in FY 2017 and 5.4 per cent in FY 2018.

The finance minister also said that inflation was brought down to less than 3 per cent in FY 2016, the lowest in decades and fiscal deficit reduced from 8.2 per cent to 4.6 per cent in FY 2016. On the revenue side, tax collection increased by 60 per cent over last three years and forex reserves were sufficient for over five months of import cover.

The IMF had last year completed the twelfth and final review of Pakistan's three-year economic reform programme supported by an EFF arrangement. In September, 2013, the IMF had approved the 36-month extended arrangement under the EFF in the amount of SDR 4.393 billion (about USD 6.15 billion, or 216 per cent of Pakistan's current quota at the IMF).