ISLAMABAD: In the second quarter of the current financial year, the poor performance of the industries and services sector had a negative impact on the economic growth and the economic growth rate of Pakistan fell to only one percent.
Just 2 days before leaving office, former finance minister Dr. Shamshad had claimed that economic growth would reach 3% in the second quarter of this financial year due to strong manufacturing situation. Only the construction sector is showing steady growth due to the special attention of the Special Investment Facilitation Council.
According to the National Accounts Committee, the economic growth rate in the second quarter of October to December was only one percent. The growth rate of the industrial sector was 0.84%, the growth rate of the services sector was 0.01% and the growth rate of the agricultural sector was recorded at 5%.
According to the SIFC Secretariat, the Green Corporate Livestock Initiative has signed an agreement to import 9 breeds of cattle from a Brazilian company. This initiative will improve the livestock sector. In this regard, the first consignment of 173 cattle reached Sialkot International Airport on Thursday.
In the 108th meeting of NAC, the growth rate for the first quarter was revised to 2.5% from 2.1%. Pakistan’s population is growing at an annual rate of 2.6%. A growth rate lower than this means an increase in the problems of poverty, unemployment and malnutrition in the country.
The government has set a growth target of 3.5 percent in the current financial year, but according to the IMF, the growth rate is expected to be 2 percent due to the recent financial crisis. The new finance minister said this week that Pakistan can achieve economic growth by focusing on the agricultural sector while continuing the IMF program.
However, he said that it has become impossible to do business at an interest rate of 22 percent. The State Bank has kept the interest rate at 22% to keep inflation under control. In the second quarter, the agriculture sector supported the country’s economy with a growth rate of 5 percent due to better performance in cotton, ginning and livestock. This quarter saw an increase of 8.12% in the production of major crops. Wheat production increased by 6.7%.
However, the production of sugarcane crop remained negative and has decreased by 10.7%. Apart from important crops, the production of other crops also decreased by 0.34%. The production of cotton gin and several other components showed a large increase over the previous year. This increase was recorded at 53.6%. This year the yield of cotton crop has improved a lot.
The growth of mining and quarrying industry was 4.17%. Meanwhile, 5% decrease in gas production, 40.13% decrease in marble, 20% decrease in lime stone was observed. In the second quarter of the current fiscal year, large-scale manufacturing output saw a normal growth of 0.5 percent.
The growth of public administration and insurance industry also remained negative at 16.2 percent. The growth rate in the education sector was close to one percent. The Human Health and Social Work industry had a negative trend and also saw a negative decline of 2.5 percent. The growth rate of private services stood at 3.63 percent.
Economic development
