Key Highlights of the Pakistan Economic Survey 2017

Key Highlights of the Pakistan Economic Survey 2017

1. GDP growth crossed the 5% mark for the first time in 10 years to close the year at 5.28%.
2. Pakistan’s economy is now worth more than USD 300bn.
3. Key growth sectors: Services 5.98%, Industrials 5.02% and Agriculture 3.46%.
4. Services now contribute 60% to GDP (previously 58%) while agriculture contributes 20%.
5. Major crops underwent a growth of 3.46%.
6. The cotton ginning sector depicted a growth of 5.59%. Cotton bales supply during the period remained at 10.7mn bales.
7. Sugar cane production during the year was set at 73.61mn tons.
8. Agriculture credit to reach a massive PKR 700bn.
9. Consumer Price Index (CPI) remained below the expected 6% to clock-in at 4.09%. Dissection revealed Food price inflation remained at 3.86%, whereas prices of non-food items surged by 4.25% in 10MFY17.
10. Fiscal deficit to arrive at 4.2% in FY17 with total revenue at PKR 4,172bn.
11. The same however, cannot be said for trade deficit which was targeted at PKR 20.4bn; actual deficit swelled to PKR 24bn in the period.
12. Remittances for the outgoing year are projected at USD 19.5bn, while Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is expected to reach USD 2.58bn in FY17.
13. Current account deficit is expected to reach USD 8.3bn by the end of this year.
14. Imports by end of the current year should peak to USD 45.48bn with imports of machinery depicting a growth of 40% YoY (in particular, imports of machinery for Power and agriculture escalated by 70% and 37% YoY, respectively).
15. While exports are expected to reach ~USD 22bn in FY17.
16. Forex reserves have cooled down slightly to USD 21bn.
17. Pertinently, income per capita has reached USD 1,629.
18. That said, GDP growth target for next year set at 6%.