Dar presents Economic Survey: 'decade's highest growth of 5.3% achieved'

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar on Thursday launched 'The Economic Survey of  Pakistan' for the outgoing fiscal year (2016-17) .

Despite several internal and external challenges, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recorded decade's highest growth of 5.3 percent during the fiscal year 2016-17.

“The growth rate was just 3 percent in 2013, which has now risen to 5.3 percent and this growth is also being acknowledged at the world level,” Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar said while launching Pakistan Economic Survey for the outgoing fiscal year (2016-17) here at “P” block auditorium Thursday afternoon.

Dar said that the overall size of Pakistan’s economy has crossed the threshold of $300 billion during the current year.

While the GDP growth rate target for the upcoming year (2017-18) has been fixed at 6 percent, the minister, said hoping that the target would not only be achieved but also exceeded.

He said that during the outgoing year (2016-17), the agriculture sector posted a growth of 3.5 per cent, which was a positive sign and attributed the growth to incentive package announced in the last budget to the farmers.

The minister said that policy rate has been reduced to 5.75 percent, which was at the lowest level in last 45 years

Economic Survey is the pre-budget document highlighting the the over all performance of economy during the outgoing fiscal year. Providing a realistic feedback and and basis for future panning.