Minister defends growth projections

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar has said that the National Accounts Committee’s method of calculating growth was similar to the United Nation’s system and as many as 26 agencies had been feeding their data into the system, while it had 24 subsectors with their growth data. Referring to the past, while briefing Prime Minister Imran Khan, the minister said the current data did not depend on the non-verifiable or manipulative data, like the livestock. He said the report showed that the industry’s growth rate was 3.5 per cent, agriculture 2.7pc and services 4.4pc. He said the large scale industry’s growth rate was 9pc, although, the experts suggested that the growth was much higher, adding that after receiving the final data of three quarters, the growth would be 14pc. The minister said sales in the cement sector were at record high, along with fertiliser, automobiles and motorcycles. He said the housing and construction sectors were also growing at higher pace of almost 8.5pc.

Hammad Azhar said in agriculture, wheat production had set a record, along with sugarcane and corn, and experts suggested that the growth would rise from 3.94pc to 4.4pc after the third quarter’s data.

He said the current account deficit does not relate to the growth as previously did by allowing imports to show higher growth.

He said the current account is in surplus by nearly $800 million after 17 years. Hammad said the pace of increasing foreign debt was $11 billion per annum before the PTI government came into power, while in the current year the increase was only $3.5 billion.