Economic Survey to be launched on Thursday

Pre-budget document presenting the state of the country’s economy, `the Economic Survey of Pakistan’ for the outgoing fiscal year 2016-17 is likely to be launched here on Thursday (May 25).

All arrangements have been finalised to launch the Economic Survey for 2015-16, the official sources said.

Federal Minister for Finance, Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar would launch the pre-budget document, highlighting the overall performance of the economy during the outgoing fiscal year, providing a realistic feedback and basis for future planning.

The survey will cover the development of all the important sectors of the economy, including growth and investment, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, fiscal development, money and credit, capital markets, inflation, debt and liabilities.

The survey will also highlight the performance of agriculture, education, health and nutrition, besides showing the overall population, labour force and employment, poverty, transport and communication and per capita income.

It will also highlight issues of environment, contingent liabilities, tax expenditure as well as economic and social indicators.

Meanwhile, the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on May 19, had already approved the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth target at 6 per cent for the financial year 2016-17, while the government achieved a GDP growth rate of 5.3 per cent in the outgoing fiscal year.

The NEC also approved country’s consolidated development budget of Rs 2.5 trillion for the upcoming financial year (2017-18), showing the highest-ever increase in the overall national outlay.

This included Rs 1001 billion Federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), Rs 1112 billion provincial PSDP while Rs 400 billion would be spent by various corporations from their own resources to carry out their development projects.

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