Twirp : Terrorist Wahabi Islamic Republic Pakistan

[Naresh]

[center] <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--><b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>GDP growth misses revised target of 6.5pc</span></b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->[/center]

<b>ISLAMABAD : <span style='color:red'>The gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.78 per cent in the outgoing fiscal year against the revised envisaged target of 6.5 per cent, owing to the low agriculture and industrial output in 2007-08.

The neglected agriculture sector became a major victim and witnessed steep decline by achieving only 1.49 per cent growth in the financial year 2007-08 against the envisaged target of over 4 per cent.</span></b>

Pakistan has missed its envisaged overall GDP growth target of 7.2 per cent, as it is estimated to achieve only 5.78 per cent growth in accordance with the findings of the National Accounts Committee.

The government had claimed to achieve five per cent agriculture growth during the previous financial year in accordance with its initial estimates, which were later on lowered to 3.66 per cent when figures were finalised. The government adjusted results of the official survey on livestock sector that resulted in respectable growth of 3.78 per cent in the outgoing financial year 2007-08. If the livestock had not achieved this growth figure, Pakistan might have witnessed a negative agriculture growth again, as the country had achieved negative growth in this sector during the severe drought that hit the country in 2000-01.

The services, financial and insurance, construction and public administration and defence sectors growth estimates performed well and enabled the government to achieve the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 5.78 per cent in 2007-08.

The National Accounts Committee (NAC) meeting was held here on Monday in which growth figures of various sectors were finalised. The meeting was attended by high-ups of the ministries concerned, State Bank and representatives of four provincial governments.

Official sources, who participated in the NAC meeting, told The News that the State Bank inserted the latest figures about the financial sector in the working paper for finalising the GDP growth figure, which resulted into the GDP growth rate reaching 5.78 per cent.

When Statistics Division Secretary Asad Elahi was contacted for comments, he explained that no controversy erupted over these figures in the meeting as basically the SBP provided the data related to the financial sector for first six months (July-Dec) period of the current fiscal. The bank provided us the data related to the third quarter (Jan-March) of the current fiscal year on Sunday so ultimately it was inserted into the working paper.

Pakistan had envisaged 7.2 per cent GDP growth target for the current fiscal year, which was revised downward to 6.5 per cent because of continued political turmoil as well as severe load shedding.

The estimates of overall industrial growth also witnessed major decline in the outgoing financial year as it stood at 4.63 per cent by 2007-08 against over 8 per cent growth achieved in the previous financial year, mainly owing to severe energy shortages.

The services sector projection has rescued the government by achieving growth rate of 8.16 per cent during the outgoing financial year against 7.96 per cent in 2006-07. Within the industrial growth, the large scale manufacturing (LSM) growth witnessed massive decline in the current fiscal year and achieved only 4.84 per cent growth against 8.8 per cent growth in the previous financial year.

The small scale manufacturing grew by 7.51 percent in 2007-08 against 7.7 per cent in 2006-07. The construction sector achieved higher growth of 15.16 per cent during the current financial year but it lowered a little bit from the previous year’s growth rate of 17.2 per cent in 2006-07.

The transport and communication sector is estimated to have a growth rate of 4.42 per cent during the current fiscal year 2007-08 against the growth of 5.8 per cent in the previous fiscal year.

The wholesale and retail trade achieved 6.37 per cent growth in the current financial year against 7.1 per cent in the last fiscal year. The financial and insurance sector again achieved higher growth in the outgoing fiscal year as it stood at 17.04 per cent in 2007-08 against 18 per cent in the previous financial year.

The public administration and defence achieved higher growth trajectory, which stood at 10.8 per cent for the current fiscal year 2007-08 against 6.9 per cent growth achieved in the previous financial year. The social services grew by 9.4 per cent in the current financial year against 8.5 per cent in the previous fiscal year 2006-07.

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