ISLAMABAD, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's V-shaped economic recovery on the back of broad-based growth across all sectors has enabled it to witness a 3.94 percent growth during the first nine months of FY21 (July 2020-March 2021), the economic survey of Pakistan revealed on Thursday.
Unveiling the economic survey a day ahead of the presentation of the budget for FY22 (July 2021-June 2022) in the National Assembly, the country's Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said that the growth exceeded the government's target of 2.1 percent as manufacturing and services sectors made remarkable progress during the ongoing financial year.
The economic survey of Pakistan is an annual report on the performance of the economy, focusing in particular on major macroeconomic indicators.
The survey said that despite myriad of challenges, the economy is moving progressively on higher inclusive and sustainable growth path due to the government's timely and appropriate measures, adding that the government is monitoring the country's situation actively and is taking necessary steps to facilitate agricultural and industrial sectors so as to avoid the downside risk and to further accelerate the economic recovery.
Manufacturing has witnessed broad-based growth as major sectors of large-scale manufacturing including textile, food beverages and tobacco, non-metallic mineral products and automobile have shown significant improvement, due to which the first nine months of FY21 recorded the highest period-wise growth of 8.99 percent since 2007, the survey added.
The survey stated that the duty exemptions under the second phase of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement which came into effect in 2019, industrial support packages, relief to export-oriented industries, electricity and gas subsidy for the export-oriented industries and tax exemptions for electric vehicle manufacturers led to the remarkable turnaround in the industrial sector.
Tax collection of the Federal Board of Revenue also witnessed a significant growth of around 18 percent during July-May FY21 owing to the revival of domestic economic activity and ongoing comprehensive tax policy and administrative reforms, it added.
Shedding light on the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, the survey said that the economy was recovering from macroeconomic imbalances before 2020, but COVID-19 slowed down the pace which was recovered initially and the advent of the second and third wave brought significant challenges which were met by the timely prudent policies.
"According to the 'Special Survey for Evaluating Socio-Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Wellbeing of People' conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, population working was 55.74 million prior to COVID-19. This number declined to 35.04 million which indicates people either lost their jobs or were not able to work. The government announced a package for the construction sector and provided industrial relief, etc. Thus opening of these sectors, in which daily wagers were working along with fiscal stimulus and monetary measures, helped the economy to recover."
The finance minister showed resolve to further grow the economy after its recovery from the pandemic-stricken FY20 by taking measures to uplift agricultural and industrial sectors, and widening the tax net by bringing reforms in the Federal Board of Revenue. Enditem