Economic Survey today

ISLAMABAD: The government is set to launch the Economic Survey of Pakistan for the outgoing fiscal year (2016-17) and Annual Plan for the year 2017-18 on Thursday.

All arrangements have been finalised to present the Economic Survey for 2016-17 and Annual Plan for 2017-18, the official sources said.

Federal finance minister senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar would launch the pre-budget document, highlighting the overall performance of economy during the outgoing fiscal year, providing a realistic feedback and basis for future planning.

The survey will cover the development of all the important sectors of the economy, including growth and investment, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, fiscal development, money and credit, capital markets, inflation, and debt and liabilities.

The survey will also highlight the performance of agriculture, education, health and nutrition, besides showing the overall population, labour force and employment, poverty, transport and communication, and per capita income. It will also highlight issues of environment, contingent liabilities, tax expenditure as well as economic and social indicators.

The government would also launch the annual plan, highlighting government's preparation and planning for the upcoming fiscal year in different sectors of the national economy.

The National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on May 19, had already approved the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth target at 6 percent for the financial year 2016-17, while the government achieved a GDP growth rate of 5.3 percent in the outgoing fiscal year.  The NEC also approved the country's consolidated development budget of Rs2.5 trillion for the upcoming financial year (2017-18), showing highest ever increase in the overall national outlay.

This included Rs1,001 billion federal Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) and Rs1,112 billion provincial PSDP, while Rs400 billion would be spent by various corporations from their own resources to carry out their development projects.

Social sector has been given importance in the development budget 2017-18, financing for which has been increased from Rs90 billion to Rs153 billion.