With the ministries of finance and planning on the same page, the production sectors are expected to be placed at the centre of the forthcoming federal budget growth strategy in a bid to put the economy on a sound footing.
In recent decades, economic growth has predominately been driven by consumption while on the supply side, the contribution of investment, production and exports to GDP expansion has remained much below their potential.
The domestic demand is met with huge imports of foreign goods and services that have no share in GDP. Though the inflows of workers’ remittances have positive effects on economic growth, it is primarily through the consumption channel, while the investment channel is not found significant, say a working paper central bank researchers Sarmad Ellahi and Muhammad Omer.
Growth rate of 3.94% not surprising
Govt must be committed to reforms without which growth cannot be sustainable
ISLAMABAD:
When the National Accounts Committee published an estimate of 3.94% economic growth based on the July 2020-April 2021 period, it caught most of the commentators by surprise and the estimate was disputed.
In this article, we argue that this should not have been the case, using insights obtained from our analysis.
For the last 18 months, we have published a monthly index, which takes into account Pakistan’s macro-economy based on the analysis of four periodic datasets: trade volume (TV), Consumer Price Index (CPI), Quantum Index of Large-Scale Manufacturing Industries (QIM) and Long-Term Financing Facility (LTFF). From July 2020 to April 2021, the index has exhibited an upward trend, registering a growth of 19%. It shows that the economy has demonstrated positive growth for all but two months.
ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee Thursday sought an audit report from the finance ministry and the National Accounts Committee, which had identified serious irregularities in coronavirus.