Minister lauds economic performance

Bakhtiar says Pakistan’s economy is poised to pick up from where it was pre-Covid

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan’s economic performance is remarkable in the context of the second wave of Covid-19 and persistent growth contraction worldwide, said Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar.

According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Saturday, he said pre-Covid improvement in macroeconomic fundamentals coupled with a strong policy response during the pandemic helped the government save lives as well as livelihoods of the people.

“The economy is poised to pick up from where it was before the Covid-19 outbreak,” he added. Stating figures, he said that as a result of government’s strong support for industrial sector, especially construction and textile, large scale manufacturing (LSM) expanded 4.8% year-on-year in the first quarter of FY2020-21 against contraction of 5.5% in the same quarter last year.

According to him, robust momentum of economic recovery was evident from growing production of cement, textile, automobile and home appliances during the first five months of the ongoing fiscal year.

“This revival of industrial growth has created huge employment opportunities which surpassed the pre-Covid levels,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2020.

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