KARACHI: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Ishaq Dar is scheduled to release the Pakistan Economic Survey today, Thursday, to present a comprehensive assessment of the country’s economic performance, trends, and challenges ahead of the presentation of the federal budget.
The official document will provide a detailed overview of various economic sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, services, energy, information technology, telecom, health, education, transport, and capital markets, etc.
The survey will also describe in detail the annual trends of major economic indicators related to inflation, trade, public debt, population, employment, climate change, and social protections.
“The Pakistan Economic Survey, containing the details of major socio-economic achievements during the outgoing fiscal year 2022-23, will be launched in a ceremony on Thursday, June 8, 2023, at 4:10 p.m. at the Auditorium of P-Block, Pak Secretariat,” the finance division said in a statement. “Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, will chair the launching ceremony of the Economic Survey for the outgoing fiscal year.”
Dar will also present the federal budget for 2023-24 in the National Assembly on Friday amid an inconclusive deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under a bailout program signed in 2019.
The outgoing fiscal year has been unprecedented for the South Asian country in terms of the highest-ever inflation, slowing economic growth, and depletion of foreign exchange reserves, which triggered massive currency devaluation.
The cash-strapped Pakistan took various harsh measures, including energy tariff hikes, to get the IMF’s nod for the conclusion of the ninth review of the bailout program, but it continued to remain off track for nearly eight months. The program, which was originally signed for $6 billion, was enhanced to $6.5 billion until June 2023.
As the tenure of the program is set to expire at the end of this month, Pakistani authorities have failed to revive the stalled loan program, which has also prevented funding from other donors.
The economic slowdown in Pakistan has also tanked the country’s GDP growth, which is estimated to remain at 0.29 percent in the current fiscal year, FY23, as compared to the revised growth rate of 6.10 percent of the last fiscal year, FY22, according to the finance ministry.
Pakistan has witnessed a massive uptick in the inflation rate since late last year, which hit the highest-ever 38 percent in April. The inflation was also fueled by around 30 percent currency devaluation since June 2022 along with the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that disrupted the global supply chain.
Despite these challenges, the government has approved an estimated 3.5 percent GDP growth target for the next fiscal year, FY24, said the planning minister, Ahsan Iqbal, on Tuesday.
As the finance ministry is set to announce the fiscal plan for 2023-24, the budget outlay is expected to be around Rs15 trillion, against Rs9.6 trillion proposed for FY23, assuming a record-high markup cost due to the high-interest rate.
The government is likely to set a tax revenue collection target of about Rs9.2 trillion for FY24, about 8.6 percent of the GDP, according to Topline Securities.
