Towards growth a’ la Bangladesh?
The country had its share of military and hybrid regimes during 1975-1990
The writer is a senior political economist based in Islamabad. He can be reached at [email protected]
Going by his pre- and post-entry utterances, it is abundantly clear that the new steward of the economic team is trying to build a narrative of growth in an economy that has gone astray. The positive numbers he has to work with are the upsurge in textile production and exports, and workers’ remittances. Remittances are breaking all records, with an annualised rise of 56% in April and 29% in the 10 months of 2020-21. Textiles, with the largest weight of 20.9% in the large-scale manufacturing, grew by 40.4% in March and 5.9% in the nine months. These highs, it must be remembered, are due to negative growth in the comparable periods. Textile exports in March rose by 29% and in nine months by 2%. Export of readymade garments increased by 10.9% in March, but declined by 1.6%