Pakistan crosses 5 pct GDP growth mark

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan on Thursday announced that its gross domestic product (GDP) had crossed the 5 percent mark though it missed the 5.7 percent growth target for the fiscal year 2016-17.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who unveiled the yearly economic survey report in the capital Islamabad during a news conference, announced that the country’s GDP -- the monetary value of all the goods and services a country produces in a year -- touched 5.28 percent for the first time in 10 years.

In another first, Pakistan joined the club of economies valued over $300 billion, he said.

“This is being celebrated all over the world”, Dar said, adding that the government had set a target of 6 percent GDP growth for the fiscal year 2017-18.

Pakistan’s industrial, agriculture and services sectors have shown significant recovery, according to the survey report, which is released every year just before the annual budget.

Pakistan achieved 5.02 percent, 3.46 percent, and 5.98 percent growth in industrial, agriculture and services sectors, respectively in 2016-17, the survey report stated.

The last time Pakistan recorded nearly 5 percent GDP growth was in 2008. In 2013 it touched a record low of 3 percent growth following a spate of terrorism, bad governance and rampant corruption during the five-year term of the left-wing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

- Pakistan misses trade deficit target

Pakistan missed its trade deficit target of 20.4 billion rupees ($19.5 million) with the actual deficit widening to 24 billion rupees ($2.29 million) during the same period.

It managed to meet a 3.8 percent budget deficit target with the actual deficit registering at 3.7 percent, the report said.

Per capita income reached $1,629 dollars compared to $1,333 last year.

- High hopes from CPEC

Dar expects a significant increase in foreign investment during the next fiscal year, as according to him, businessmen are looking to relocate from China and Japan due to higher labor costs.

Economists observe that Pakistan is relying heavily on a $51 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which according to both countries, would turn out to be a game-changer in boosting the two economies.

The much-publicized project aims to connect China's strategically important northwestern Xinxiang province to Gawadar port through a network of roads, railways and pipelines.

The economic corridor will not only provide China cheaper access to Africa and the Middle East but will also earn Pakistan billions of dollars for providing transit facilities to the world’s second-largest economy, Pakistan maintains.