Average national economic growth reaches 4.85% in five years, becomes world’s 5th fastest emerging force: Ahsan

ISLAMABAD, Mar 9 (APP):Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Professor Ahsan Iqbal Friday said average growth of national economy remained 4.85 percent during the last five years as compared to 3 per cent growth rate during tenure of the previous government, and Pakistan become the fifth fastest emerging country among comity of the nations, showing remarkable increase of 2 percent.
“The Government has managed to reshape the course of national economy as per promise made in 2013 which is evident from the fact that the international rating agencies are now acknowledging Pakistan as one of the top few emerging economies of the world, who were earlier describing it a sinking economy ” he said while addressing a joint news conference along with Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Miftah Ismail and Minister of State for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan here.
Making five-year performance comparison of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government with the previous regime, the minister said that at present, the agriculture sector growth reached 2.5 percent from 1.5 percent, while industrial sector had climbed to 5.6 percent from 2.7 percent, which is being appreciated by international institutions.
Now, Ahsan said, size of the national economy was around $ 315 billion, which was stagnant at around $ 210-215 billion, adding that achievement made on various fronts by the PML-N government could not be ignored.
The minister said the country also witnessed tremendous progress in the energy sector and succeeded in breaking the backbone of terrorism, which had been affecting the national economy.
He said Overseas Investors Chamber had reposed all-time high confidence in Pakistan’s market.
He said the government made highest investment in higher education sector, which triggered a new wave of development in universities across the country to expand scientific and laboratory programmes.
He said the present government when came into power, pledged to give special focus on 4 Es including Economy, Energy, Elimination of extremism, and Education and the current figures of macroeconomic indicators of the country were showing enormous change.
He said the menace of extremism had almost eliminated, economy had witnessed rapid growth, while energy crisis had also controlled as the load shedding period had been dropped from 18-20 hours a day to only two hours.
Besides, he said the government had also allocated the highest amount in the country’s history and highest number of scholarship were awarded to brilliant students for higher education in top universities of the world.

Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said that heavy investment had been also made in the country’s infrastructure, energy and industrial sectors under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which would result in giving boost to the national economy.
“CPEC is at initial stage and still its benefits are being felt across the country as far flung areas of the country are being connected with the big cities through construction of 1650 kilometers motorways besides numerous employment and entrepreneurship opportunities are also surfacing,” he said adding after completion of the mega project in 2030, Pakistan would become hub of regional trade, business and manufacturing.
Ahsan said during last four years, the government had invested over US$1 billion to revive the country’s railway system while under CPEC, over $8 billion were being invested to upgrade the railway sector.
He informed that Gwadar Master Plan would be completed within five months and after its completion work on a state of the art and one of the most smart Gwadar port would be started.
He said for the first time in country’s history, the government had made it possible to utilize the precious Thar coal and by the end of current year, the local coal would start producing electricity which would continue to produce electricity for next 400 years as the coal reserves in Tharparkar had energy equal to that of Iran and Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas reserves.
The minister said, the current government had fulfilled the promise it made during 2013 elections and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), a multinational professional services network headquartered in London had also forecast that if current pace of development continued in Pakistan, it would be included in top 20 economies of the world by 2030.
He also called for evolving charter of economy before the next general elections to ensure continuity of the economic policies despite changing of the governments.
He said Pakistan Muslim League (N) was the only party which could keep the current momentum of economic development therefore it was necessary that it should remain in the government for next five years as well.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Miftah Ismail announced that federal budget for the year 2018-19 would be presented in the National Assembly on April 27.
“The budget will be presented on April 27 as the incumbent government’s tenure is completing on May 31, and due to start of holy month of Ramazan,” he said.
After the federal budget presentation, he said, the provinces would be able to table fiscal plans in their respective assemblies.
Miftah said the government had already consulted with parliamentary parties including PTI, PPP and MQM, and all were in agreement about the budget presentation date.
Commenting on energy sector achievements, the adviser said the government had added around 12,000 MW additional electricity in the national grid, which would be fully utilized in June.
Besides, arrangements have been made to add 20,000 more electricity in next two to three years in the system, which would end the load-shedding forever, he added.
From 1947 to 2013, he said, the country’s total installed power capacity was 21,000 MW and electricity production 15,000 MW, causing 18 to 20 hours a day load-shedding.
He said the government initiated a number of power generation projects, which are yielding required results.
He hoped that the target of economic growth of 6 per cent set for the current fiscal year would be achieved which mean that there would be more business activities, more jobs, and more revenues.
He said that by seeing the current pace of national economic growth, it could be easily predicted that the country economic growth would reach 7-8 percent in next few years.
Comparing macroeconomic figures with the previous government, Miftah Ismail said refinancing risk of the Domestic Debt Portfolio” was reduced through lengthening of the maturity profile as percentage of the domestic debt maturing in one year was reduced to 55.6 percent at end of June 2017 compared with 64.2 percent at end of June 2013.
“Exposure to the Interest Rate Risk” was also reduced as the percentage of public debt re-fixing in one year decreased to 47.8 percent at the end of June 2017 compared to 52.4 percent at the end of June 2013.
“Share of External Loans Maturing within One Year” was equal to around 27.7 percent of official liquid reserves at the end of June 2017 as compared with around 68.5 percent at the end of June 2013 indicating improvement in foreign exchange stability and repayment capacity,” he added.
A high growth trajectory and rapid implementation of energy and infrastructure projects has increased external sector pressure; and current account is likely to be widened around 5% of GDP in FY2017-18.
He informed that the current account deficit from Jul-Jan FY18 stands at $9.16 billion explaining that the current account deficit was increased due to heavy investment in infrastrucure and energy sectors.
He said regulatory duties were helping contain imports while Export Package had helped in increasing exports by 11.8 percent from July-January 2017-18 as compared to same period last year.
In FY 2013, the foreign exchange reserves had hit US$ 11 billion, which rose to US$ 24.5 billion in October 2016, but had since declined as a result of higher imports of growth enhancing capital equipment and machinery, he added.
Replying to a question, Miftah Ismail said at present total circular debts payable to Independent Power Producers stood at Rs 213 billion out of which Rs 50 billion were paybale by Pakistan State Oil (PSO).
He assured that the government would clear all circular debts in next few days and it would not leave behind no such debts.