The confession is made not before the public or parliament, but before the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global lender of last resort. It submitted the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) to the IMF on June 19, which mentions the ‘actual’ figure of growth. One can understand the compulsion of a government to portray a rosy picture of its performance in all spheres of governance. A poor showing will definitely leave a blot on its record. That probably explains why the government appears to be getting economical with the truth. It need not have to. For there have been factors which worked to throw the economy down in the dumps. Some of those negative factors were well beyond its control, the country at war with militants being one of them. So the PML-N can rest assured, that its electorate will see the point if it truthfully tells them the circumstances under which its economic performance had been below the mark.
Now that the military has launched a decisive offensive against militants in North Waziristan, the conditions in the country will hopefully become conducive to growth of business, exports and investment. With the elimination of militancy, the government could launch new initiatives to boost the economy and bring a real turnaround. That should be the time it could rightfully boast it had lifted the economy. There is no denying the fact that the country needs a higher growth rate to accommodate its youth graduating from campuses every year in the job market. Let us hope the country’s industry and services sector flourishes, so that this youth bulge is absorbed.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2014.
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Only if the government lives up to the pre-electoral promise of improving relations with India and enabling commerce, trade travel and tourism between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan would this be possible.
the PML N govt does not seem to have learnt lesson from their last stint...they did the same and doing it today....same figure fudging , same hiding facts from the public etc; then at the end the economy hit so low that it was forced to appeal for " dollar bhego mulk bachao "...and rest is history....this time too, it seem we are heading towards same path but with more disastrous consequence due to militancy....
Expect high inflation in Pakistan as agriculture growth rate is too low to feed increasing population.
Does anybody seriously buy the 3.3% number? The 4.1% figure was a red-herring. So that the number can be 'negotiated' down. The real GDP in Pakistan is likely below zero. With no power and no investment it goes against all common sense that a nation could grow in real terms.
What a bizarre editorial. The 'circumstances' this PML-N government faces are no different at all to those faced by the previous widely disliked PPP government, and yet growth is even lower. The inescapable conclusion is that PML-N just isn't performing.
And getting caught blatantly lying before Parliament and the country isn't some small matter the deserves a mere slap on the wrist. PML-N and Ishaq Dar out to be condemned unequivocally, and Dar's resignation is in order.