ISLAMABAD: The incumbent government in its five-year tenure has failed to address the key structural issues of Pakistan’s economy i.e. saving rates and low investment and was unable to achieve its target for this financial year, revealed official data.
The National Accounts Committee (NAC) determined by end of the financial year 2017-18, private investment is projected to have fallen to its lowest in five years and national savings to GDP ratio has also decreased to 10 years low, reported Express Tribune.
The incumbent governments’ five-year plan had envisaged to raise the investment to GDP ratio to 22.8 percent by FY 2017-18, but it touched 16.4 percent against projections of 17.2 percent.
But the downward slide continues, as saving fell previous years level, touching 11.4 percent of GDP compared to estimates of 14.6 percent.
During last financial year, savings were recorded at 12 percent of GDP. And the PML-N’s five-year plan had envisaged to raise savings to 21.3 percent of GDP.
Because of these factors, the country’s current account deficit is estimated to widen to 5 percent of GDP compared to 4.1 percent in last financial year.
The revised current account deficit is roughly double of the official projections of 2.6 percent of GDP.
And these figures will be released as part of the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2017-18 on the 26th of April, a day before the budget gets unveiled.