Pakistan logs 6% growth in FY22, economy's size jumps to $383 billion

Fueled by imports and consumption, Pakistan’s econom­ic growth rate accelerated to 6 per cent during the last year of Imran Khan’s government  — the highest pace in four years — helping to increase the size of the nation’s economy to $383 billion besides jacking up per-capita income.

The provisional GDP grow­th rate for the year 2021-22 is estimated at 5.97 per cent, ann­ounced the Planning Ministry after a meeting of the National Accounts Committee. The bro­ad-based growth was witness­ed in all the sectors of the eco­nomy, it added. The GDP is the monetary value of all goods and services produced in a year. The nearly 6 per cent growth rate is higher than the official target of 4.8 per cent and far higher than the estimates of the Ministry of Fina­nce, State Bank of Pakistan, IMF, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

The figure is provisional and subject to variations once the final results are available at the end of the fiscal year. The economic growth rate during the last two years of the PTI rule was slightly better than the PML-N’s last two years but both the governments failed to address structural problems of Pakistan’s economy. An attempt had been made to downplay the growth figures in the last year of the PTI government but the authorities dropped the plan after a report appeared in The Express Tribune.
 

Bans imports of all non-essential luxury goods

Pakistan has banned the import of all non-essential luxury goods in a bid to stabilize the economy, the information minister said on Thursday.

“All those non-essential luxury items that are not used by the wider public, a complete ban has been imposed on their import,” minister Marriyum Aurangzeb told reporters.

The move comes as Pakistan’s current account deficit has spiralled out of control and its local currency, the Pakistani rupee, has hit historic lows against the US dollar. (Reuters).