Economy takes off as indicators improve: Azhar

Hammad Azhar says revenue collection, foreign reserves are showing progress

ISLAMABAD: The government has not only uplifted the ailing economy but it has also placed the country on the path of sustainable growth, which is clearly visible from the improvement in economic indicators, said Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, he said that the economy had started taking off as economic indicators including investment inflows, foreign exchange reserves, revenue collection, current account balance, trade balance, ease of doing business and inflation were showing positive developments.

Citing the break-up of performance of various economic indicators, he said the current account deficit, in dollar terms, contracted by 64% during the first quarter of the current fiscal year compared to a reduction of 32% during the corresponding period of previous fiscal year.

“The fiscal deficit fell by 1.4% during the quarter whereas it witnessed about 0.4% reduction on a year-on-year basis,” he said, adding that the primary budget in the first three months was in surplus by Rs285 billion. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investment, which had reported outflows for the past three years, grew by $350 million, showing a growth of 137%, he added.

Azhar said that foreign exchange reserves, which were constantly declining since 2017 (by $500 million per month on average), have shown stability from January 2019 onward, despite the government making record payments on account of debt servicing amounting to around $10 billion.

On the revenue front, he pointed out that the number of tax filers increased by 55% and domestic revenues increased by 25% during the four months under question, adding that there had been a growth of 15% in overall revenues.

The minister said that the government had achieved 90% revenue collection target set for the first quarter following collection of Rs960 billion in taxes. Azhar reiterated that addition to the circular debt would be reduced to zero by December 2020.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th, 2019.

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