‘Economy moving in right direction’
ISLAMABAD: The government has said that the economy was moving in the right direction. The economy recovered rapidly than projected by international institutions. Despite COVID-19 pandemic, the government was able to shield industries from being stalled with timely stimulus packages.
The principal focus was on the construction industry to boost economic activity with subsequent job creation. The Pak rupee has recently gained strength against the US dollar with the reduction in the trade deficit and Current account deficit. The IMF projected the growth of Pakistan’s economy to 1 pc in “World Economic Outlook Database, October 2020” ended up revising it to 1.5 pc in January.
According to the details, the Finance Ministry high-ups took a stance that there were different indicators showing improvement for different sectors of the economy but the media was [portraying a bleak picture of the national economy.
They have shared some written details with the media to build their argument that the economy was moving in the right direction. They stated that the government has extended tax amnesty till Jun 2021 and fixed tax regime till Dec 2021. This step will help reviving the economic activities.
The official circles argued that there was an increase in tax revenue, remittance, Foreign Exchange reserve and reduction in trade, current account and fiscal deficit. The Ease of Doing Business index improved from 136 to 108. KSE 100 Index crossed 46 thousand index level for the first time since April, 2018 and closed at 46385 owned 29th January 2021.
The Large-Scale Manufacturing (LSM) has surpassed its pre-COVID level of production in Jan FY 2021, witnessing 9.1 percent growth on YoY basis (-5.7) percent in Jan FY 2020). Tractor production and sales rose by 52.9 % and 52.6 % during July-Feb, 2020-21. Irrigation water supply during February 2021 was 4.64 MAF against last year supply of 4.58 MAF. The exports during Jul-Feb FY 2021 increased by 4.4 percent to $ 16.3 billion ($15.6 billion last year).
The textile sector exports increased by 6.7 percent over the last year. The FBR’s tax revenues grew by 6.0 percent to Rs2,915 billion during Jul-Dec FY 2021 (Rs2,750 billion last year). During 1st July- 05th March, 2021 money supply increased by Rs962.4 billion (Rs946.9 billion last year).
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation decelerated to 5.7 percent on YoY basis during the month of Jan 2021 after touching a high of over 14 percent last year.
The primary balance posted a surplus of Rs416 billion in the first half of FY 2021 as compared with Rs153 billion last year. Pakistan’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves increased to $20 billion by the end of February 2021. The present reserves level provides the import cover of almost around three months.
The market capitalisation earned Rs363 billion and settled at Rs8,398 on 29th of January 2021. During Jul-Feb FY 2021, remittances rose to $18.7 billion ($15.1 billion last year), posting a growth of 24.1 percent.
