Elusive targets

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Pakistan's economy has squarely missed its growth targets for the current fiscal year. The word of consolation, however, is that GDP and per capita income have increased in dollar terms at a modest pace, giving hope for a sustained recovery in weeks and months to come. The downward revised growth is expected to be 2.68% from a prospective projected ceiling of 3.6% but could end up somewhere in the territory of 2.8%.

The lenders too are wary of the sluggishness as agriculture has taken a dip with important crops contracting by 13.49%, opening floodgates of grain imports in an already forex-constrained economy. Agrarian sector merely posted 0.56% growth, whereas the positive footprints were noticed in the services sector, industry and livestock. The fact that the economy overall swelled to $411 billion with a per capita income rise to $1,824 is a good omen.

The task for economic managers is to keep going and not to look back. They must focus on public and private sector investments with minerals being the gold pot, and try to woo expatriates to funnel their hard-earned money into profitable sectors for wealth generation. If Pakistan attains stability in currency and pushes back soaring inflation, it could overcome stagnation. Yet enormous challenges lie ahead as the economy is fixated with debt-servicing and a defence budget.

The pen-pricks of growth are several, warranting a choreographed response from both private and public sectors. It is good to note that the services sector grew by 2.9%; transport and storage saw a rise of 2.2%; construction boomed at 6.61% and information and communication sector grew by 6.48%, driven by an increase of 24% in the output of computer programming and consultancy activities.

Pakistan must relaunch its synergies in the services sector and industry as there are several untapped avenues in it. Likewise, the energy sector (especially solar panels), automobiles, surgical instruments, sport goods and IT products are other areas that need patronage from the state, and can be a bonanza in terms of soaring exports.