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Economy lifted from near bankruptcy to stability of 6pc GDP: Rana Afzal

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State Minister for Finance, Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan said Tuesday the Pakistan Muslim League (N) led government had virtually lifted the country’s economy from near bankruptcy in 2013 to the current levels of stability when GDFP was touching 6 percent growth.

“Where were we in 2013 and where we have been now is a clear reflection of government’s achievements,” he said while addressing the launching ceremony on Government Policy Scoreboard: 10th Tracking Report on “PML Economic Performance: Light at the End of the Tunnel.” The report was published by Policy Research Institute of Market Economy (PRIME).

The minister said that nobody was willing to invest in Pakistan back in 2013 and even the local investors were shifting their capital outside the country due to the worsening conditions.

He said that the financial pundits around the world were predicting that Pakistan would be declared bankrupt by 2014 and it was the situation when the incumbent government came into power.

However, Rana said, the PML(N) government accepted all the challenge when people of Pakistan reposed their confidence in its leadership, who they think would bring about economic development and elected it to run the affairs of the country.

He said that terrorism was the biggest challenge Pakistan was facing and soon after coming into power the political government initiated operations against terrorists. He said that there were 7-8 bombing incidents taking place every day which now had been reduced to 10-15 percent.

He said that elimination of terrorism from the country helped improve investment climate while government launched energy projects and China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to develop economy on sustainable grounds.

He expressed the hope that CPEC would go long way in promoting energy and strengthen exports from the country to stabilize economy of the country.

He said that economy of Pakistan was on growth path, citing recent report of World Economic Forum (WEF) which ranked Pakistan much ahead of India in emerging economies at 47 position compared to 62 position for India.

He said that world financial institutions have improved their rankings for Pakistan while International Monetary Fund (IMF) also predicted growth pickup for Pakistan during FY18 and FY19.

It is pertinent to mention here that the PRIME report has gave 6.3 overall score out of 10 to the government performance while providing it 5.78 points out of 10 for economic revival and 6.73 points out of 10 for energy security, which it said indicates that the manifesto announced by the incumbent government was on track.

Providing details achievements, the report said that GDP growth rate doubled from 3 percent to 6 percent, investment in energy sector increased substantially, investment to GDP ratio increased whereas energy shortage had been controlled and cost of electricity has begun to decline.

The report says that the budget deficit reduced to around 5 percent, inflation curtailed and kept under 5 percent, certain tax rates were reduced, monetary policy rates reduced and kept low while some progress was observed in opening markets through FTAs.

It said that reforms were undertaken in financial and capital markets through Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, while availability of credit to private sector was improved, industrial growth rate improved to 9 percent, export-import bank established while tax to GDP ratio improved from 9 percent to 12.5 percent.

The report enumerates many achievement made in energy field including creation of single ministry of energy with Power and Petroleum as its two constituent divisions, electricity consumers in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad enabled to sell their surplus electricity to the government through net metering while electricity bills’ recovery had substantially improved as it stood at 94 percent in last reported period.

According to the report, targeted subsidy for life-line consumers using up to 100 units of electricity a month has been continued, while the government also launched several renewable energy projects.

Executive Director PRIME also spoke on the occasion and enumerated many fields of economy where government was still facing challenges.

Posted on: 2018-01-24T01:20:00+05:00