Pakistan’s economic growth rate accelerated to 6% during the last year of PTI-led govt. – the highest pace in four years – helping to increase the size of the nation’s economy (GDP) to $383 billion besides jacking up per-capita income to $1,798.
However, the massive surge in imports and consumption greased the economic growth rate, which has already triggered a serious external sector crisis – an identical pattern witnessed in 2018 when the country fell in the lap of the IMF.
Last time, the country attained a 6.1% growth rate was in 2017-18 – the last year of the PML-N rule, which had also been driven by consumption and imports and took the country back to the IMF.
Had the annual imports remained at the projected level of $55 billion in this fiscal year, the overall economic growth rate would have remained around 5%, according to a senior official of the Planning Ministry.
An attempt had been made to downplay the growth figures in the last year of the PTI govt., but the authorities dropped the plan after a report appeared in The Express Tribune. Read full report here >
