All Key Indicators Missed Target as Economy grew at snail's pace

May 09, 2019: The 101st meeting of the National Accounts Committee to review the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was held on May 9th 2019 which is chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of Planning, Development & Reform.

Provisional estimates for the year 2018-19 for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) have been presented on the basis of the latest data available for six to nine months.

The provisional growth of GDP for the year 2018-19 has been estimated at 3.3 percent. The growth of the agricultural, industrial and services sectors is 0.85%, 1.4% and 4.7% respectively.

The crop sector faced the consequences of acute water shortages during the first half of the 2018 and thus only wheat depicted positive growth of 0.5% and cotton, rice and sugarcane witnessed negative growth at -17.5%, -3.3%, and -19.4%, respectively.

Other crops (such as onion, tomatoes and fruits) show growth of 1.95% mainly because of increase in production of pulses and oil seeds. Livestock sector registered a growth of 4% whereas forestry has grown at 6.5% due to increase in production of timber.

The overall industrial sector on the other hand showed an increase of 1.4%. The mining and quarrying sector declined by 1.96%.

The large scale manufacturing (LSM) sector, which is driven primarily by QIM data (from July 2018 to February 2019), showed a contraction of 2.1%. Electricity and gas sub sector has grown by 40.5% mainly due to better performance of WAPDA & distribution companies and IPPs.

The construction activity has decreased by 7.6%. Services sector remained major contributor to economic growth as its value added increased by 4.7 percent. Within services sector, wholesale and retail trade sector grew by 3.1% whereas transport, storage and communication sector has registered a growth of 3.3%.

Finance and insurance sector shows an overall increase of 5.1% on account of positive contributions from scheduled banks (5.3%), non-schedule banks (24.6%) and insurance activities (12.8%) despite decline in central banking by 12.5%. The general government services has grown by 7.99% and other private services, a set of computer related activities, education, health & social work, NGOs etc. has contributed positively at 7.1%.