ISLAMABAD
As like previous year, the PML-N government has once again failed to achieve the economic growth target of 5.1 percent set for the outgoing financial year 2014-15, as the growth remained at 4.24 percent.
The government in the consecutive second year missed the economic growth target, as GDP growth remained at 4.03 percent during previous fiscal year 2013-14 against the target of 4.4 percent. The National Accounts Committee (NAC) on Monday approved the provisional growth rate of 4.24 percent for the outgoing fiscal year 2014-15, which will end on June 30. In comparison, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth target was 5.1 percent.
Apart from the overall economic growth, the NAC also projected that government would also missed the other growth targets of industrial, agricultural and services sectors during outgoing financial year.
It is worth mentioning here that provisional estimates for the year 2014-15 for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) have been prepared on the basis of the latest data available. These estimates are based on six to nine months provisional information projected for the whole year.
The International Financial Institutions had already projected that Pakistan would able to achieve the growth target of 5.1 percent during outgoing fiscal year. The World Bank had estimated 4.4 percent growth, International Monetary Fund (IMF) 4.1 percent and Asian Development Bank 4.3 percent for the financial year 2014-15.
The 4.24 percent economic growth is better than last year, as revised accounts of the previous year put economic expansion at 4.03 percent. Pakistan needs an annual growth of 7 percent to 8 percent to create jobs for new entrants into the market, suggest studies carried out by the Planning Commission. Anything below this leads to increase in unemployment and poverty, the commission said.
The performances of the sub-sector of the GDP growth also remained below the target level.
The industrial sector had recorded growth of 3.62 percent during outgoing fiscal year as against the target of 6.8 percent. This sector had achieved 4.45 percent growth last year. In manufacturing sector, mining and quarrying grew by 3.84 percent against the target of 6.5 percent, large scale manufacturing sector recorded growth of 2.38 percent as compare to target of 7 percent and small scale manufacturing sector would grow by 8.24 percent against target of 8 percent during outgoing financial year 2013-2014. The electricity and gas generations and distributions have recorded growth of 1.94 percent and construction sector would record massive growth of 7.05 percent during outgoing financial year.
The services sector, the biggest component of the economy, fell short of the 5.2 percent target and notched up 4.95 percent growth. Sub-sectors including transport and communications, wholesale and retail services, housing services, general government services and other services could not reach their targets.
In services sector, wholesale and retail trade recorded growth of 3.38 percent against the target of 6.1 percent, Transport, storage and communication would miss the target of 4.5 percent, as it would record growth of 4.21 percent and finance and insurance to grow by 6.18 percent as compared to the target of 5.8 percent during outgoing fiscal year
The agriculture sector stood way short of the expected growth of 5 percent and grew just 2.88 percent. In agriculture sector, important corps recorded 1 percent growth against the target of 1.5 percent, fishing record a growth of 3.15 percent against the target of 2 per cent, forestry 5.75 percent as compare to the target of 2 per cent, livestock 4.12 per cent against the target of 3.8 percent.
The NAC calculated that GDP is Rs 27383722 million and per capita income is enhanced to Rs 153060 from Rs 142312. Pakistan's population is 189.87 million in outgoing financial year 2014-15, which was 186.19 million last year.