Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Miftah Ismail Thursday formally launched the pre-budget document, Pakistan Economic Survey 2021-22 during a press conference in Islamabad.
While unveiling the Economic Survey 2021-22 in a press conference along with Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, the finance minister highlighted the key economic indicators and the performance of different sectors of the economy during the fiscal year 2021-22.
The finance minister said that the present coalition government is taking tough decisions to steer the economy through various crises. “Unfortunately, the weak economic management of the previous government has resulted in the deterioration of the exchange rate, high inflation and widened the twin deficits, thus bringing Pakistan to the verge of a financial crisis,” he lamented.
Miftah Ismail went on to say that the present coalition government has inherited a fragile economy with a current account deficit of $13.8 billion in the first 9-months of the year, a fiscal deficit of 3.8 percent of GDP expected to increase to 7.0 percent by June, total public debt at Rs44,366 billion (end March 2022), inflation at 11.3 percent and depleting forex
reserves. “The government is taking measures to extend relief to the less well-off citizens through Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP),” he noted.
This overall growth came on the back of 4.40pc growth in Agriculture, 7.19pc growth in Industries, and 6.19pc growth in Services against targets of 3.5pc, 6.5pc and 4.7pc, respectively.
The finance minister further said that Pakistan’s imports grew 48pc to $72 billion and exports by 28pc to $28.9 billion during the first 11 months of 2021-22.
He shared that Chinese banks have agreed to refinance USD 2.3 billion worth of funds which will shore up Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves.
“Pakistan’s economy in FY2022 has witnessed an estimated GDP growth of 5.97 percent. This unsustainable growth has triggered macroeconomic imbalances,” he said.
The Pakistan Economic Survey has reviewed the progress of the outgoing fiscal year based on the latest available data up to March-April 2021-22. As is customary, the Survey is launched just before the presentation of the Federal Budget 2022-23.
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