ISLAMABAD - Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC) Friday (today) will approve major economic targets for the upcoming financial year 2016-2017.

The government is likely to fix the GDP growth target at 5.7 percent for the next fiscal year as against the initial plan of fixing it at 6.2 percent. The APCC meeting, under the chair of Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal, will review the performance of economy as targeted in the annual plan of 2015-16 and clear the plan of 2016-17, setting macroeconomic indicators for next year, besides recommending Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). Later, the National Economic Council, headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Shairf, would approve the PSDP and Annual Plan on Monday.

The agriculture sector’s growth has been estimated at 3.48 percent for the next year. According to the documents, growth target for the industrial sector is expected to be fixed at 7.7 percent for the financial year 2016-17. Manufacturing sector’s growth is estimated at 6.06 percent. Similarly, growth target for large-scale manufacturing (LSM) is likely to be fixed at 5.9 percent.

Construction sector’s growth projection will be 13.2pc for upcoming financial year. Meanwhile, government is expected to target 12.5pc increase in electricity generation and gas distribution in the next year. The services sector growth target is likely to be set at 5.73pc. The government also seeks to up total investment to 17.7pc of GDP for next year with rate of inflation projected at 6pc.

It is worth mentioning here that government has missed the economic growth rate target of 5.5 percent for the consecutive third consecutive year. The National Accounts Committee (NAC) last week approved the provisional growth rate of 4.7 percent for the outgoing fiscal year 2015-16 against the envisaged target of 5.5 percent. The GDP growth remained below the target due to negative growth (-0.9 percent) in the agriculture sector.