LAHORE – Pakistan has missed all the growth targets during the outgoing fiscal year, reveals Pakistan Economic Survey 2022-23.
The country has missed the target of 5 per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth by a big margin as it was merely 0.29pc for the financial year 2022-23.
The situation was the same for all major sectors including agriculture, services and industry.
Growth in the agriculture and services sector was merely 1.6pc and 0.86pc respectively, much lower than the targets of 3.9pc and 4pc set for the outgoing fiscal year.
Industrial sector suffered the most due to contraction of manufacturing owing to high input cost and import restrictions. From more than satisfactory growth in the previous year, industrial sector showed negative growth. Against the target of 7.4pc growth, industrial sector contracted by 2.94pc (-2.94pc).
The masses suffered a lot as the country witnessed much higher inflation than the last year and estimates for the ongoing financial year. Inflation was record high at 28.2pc from July 2022 to March 2023 as against 11pc in the same period last year. The government had estimated inflation at 11.5pc, missing the target with a big margin due to rupee depreciation, global recession, high energy cost, disturbance of supply chain in the aftermath of Ukraine-Russia war and political unrest in the country.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has collected Rs5637.9 billion till April 2023 as against annual target of Rs7,470 billion. Achieving the annual target during the remaining period is really an uphill task.
The exports decreased by 9.9pc from July to March to $21bn compared to $23bn in the same period last year. Imports also decreased by 25.7pc due to restrictions for protecting depleting foreign exchange reserves during the same period. Imports were $43.7bn compared to $58.9bn in the same period last year. Owing to this, trade deficit decreased by 10.4pc as compared to the same period last year.
