Dar to unveil National Economic Survey today

The survey depicting the economic health of the country in current year in which the government mostly failed to achieve its targets set in the previous year.

The economy, after stabilization has moved on the path of progress despite failing to achieve set targets, the survey said. The economy progressed at 4.7 pct but failed to attain the targeted economic growth of 5.5 percent in the ongoing fiscal year.

The agriculture sector registered a negative growth rate of minus 0.2 percent, for the first time in last 25 years.

The government also failed to achieve targeted growth in the manufacturing sector, which developed at an average rate of five percent. This is the third consecutive year when the government failed to achieve its major economic targets.

The of Economic Survey said that the target of 5.5 percent GDP growth was not attained mainly due to the negative 0.19 per cent growth of the agriculture.

The GDP growth remained 4.7 per cent in FY16. It is because of this reason the government has scaled down the GDP growth target to 5.7 per cent from earlier projected target of 6.2 per cent for the next fiscal year.

The government this year again failed to deliver on its investment and saving targets with wide margins. The Investment to GDP ratio slipped to 15.2 per cent against the target of 17.7 per cent. National savings remained static at 14.5 per cent as compared to the target of 16.8 per cent of GDP for this year.

The fixed investment decreased to 13.6 per cent of GDP as compared to the target of 16.1 per cent. However the public investment increased 3.9 per cent of GDP as compared to the target of 4 per cent. The private sector investment remained at 9.8 per cent as against the target of 12.2 per cent.

The industrial sector showed an increase of 6.8 per cent. The mining and quarrying sectors increased by 6.8 per cent. The large scale manufacturing sector increased by 4.7 per cent during July-March FY16.

The production of cement increased by 10.4 per cent, fertilizer 16.3 per cent, automobiles 29.7 per cent, and cooking oil 8.4 per cent. Construction activity registered a growth of 13.1 per cent.

Electricity and gas sector showed a growth of 12.18 percent. The improvement is due to higher electricity generation due to falling furnace oil prices and availability of gas.

According to the survey the service sector registered a growth of 5.71 percent. holesale and retail trade sector increased by 4.57 percent, transport, storage and communication sector registered growth of 4.06 percent. Finance and insurance sector increased by 7.84 percent. The general government services grew by 11.13 percent as compared to previous year growth of 4.82 percent.