Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin said Wednesday that despite four big crises the country had to face during past three-and-half years, the economy has been heading on right direction as it grew by 5.37 percent during fiscal year 2020-21 and is expected to grow by 5% during the current year.
“This (growth) was not expected by anybody but it happened,” the federal minister said while addressing a press conference here adding that all sectors of economy including manufacturing, agriculture and services witnessed growth during the period.
He said, that earlier the growth for the last year was expected to hover around expecting 3.94, but since the large scale manufacturing witnessed considerable growth in June 2021, which jacked up overall growth figures for the year.
He expressed the hope that growth during the current year is expected at 5 percent as overall revenue collection has witnessed tremendous growth, with electricity utilization increasing by 13 percent exports on rise and bumper crops expected.
Enumerating four big crisis the incumbent government had to face during the past three and half years, the minister said, when the incumbent government took over, it had to pay around $29 billion as there were $20 billion current account deficit whereas payments of around $9 billion were also due.
He said the Prime Minister went to friendly countries and collected dollars, however the country had to go into IMF programme later, which was the toughest one following which the government had to increase discount rate, make currency devaluation, enhance utility prices to overcome deficit.–APP
