No room for error

Provisional figures on the economy corresponding to the first year of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government are available, and they look far from satisfactory — in fact troubling. The economy has grown at a much sluggish pace in comparison with the target while the debt liabilities have swelled too.

The economic figures were framed during the 101^st meeting of the National Accounts Committee. The meeting noted that as against the target of 6.2%, the economy actually grew at 3.3% — with agricultural, industrial and services sectors returning growth rates of 0.85%, 1.4% and 4.7%, respectively. One of the most worrying facts is that while Prime Minister Imran Khan had promoted his favourite project of building five million low-cost houses as one of the best solutions to bringing the country out of the prevailing economic crisis, construction as a sector recorded a negative 7.6% growth.

Pakistan’s external debt liabilities have, meanwhile, swelled to a total of $74 billion, with the country faced with the challenge of repaying a myriad of foreign lenders $31 billion over the next five years. With the government in the middle of negotiating a fresh loan from the International Monetary Fund, this figure is likely to increase further.

One thing that the PTI had warned of before coming into power was that the economy was heading for the abyss. Perhaps what the party did not figure was that the abyss would arrive soon after they took the reins of power.

Prime Minister Imran has all but completely changed his initial economic team. Irrespective of the stated or actual reasons, it has dented PTI’s credentials as a party which can tackle the economic challenges facing the country. The fact of the matter is that the public do not fully trust PM Imran when it comes to their wallets and any initial enthusiasm they may have had of him turning out to be the messiah for the country is now fast waning. The Prime Minister and his economic team must come up with solutions fast to keep the country and the public on their side.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2019.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.