ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Ishaq Dar Thursday launched the pre-budget document, Pakistan Economic Survey 2022-23 during a press conference in Islamabad.
While unveiling the Pakistan Economic Survey 2022-23 in a press conference along with Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, the finance minister highlighted the performance of different sectors of the economy during the outgoing fiscal year.
The finance minister said that the present coalition government is taking measures to steer the economy through various crises.
At the start of the presser, Dar reminded the journalists of 2013 when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) came into power and there was loadshedding of 18 hours, and terrorism was on the rise.
While talking about the outgoing fiscal year 2022-203, the minister said Pakistan achieved Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 0.29 percent for the outgoing fiscal year, missing the target of 5pc by a wide margin.
“In first quarter of FY2023, floods engulfed a large part of agriculture land and disrupted the domestic supply. Flood damages, GDP loss, and rehabilitation expenditures are Rs. 3.2 trillion (US$ 14.9 billion), Rs. 3.3 trillion (US$ 15.2 billion), and Rs. 3.5 trillion (US$16.3 billion),” he said.
Ishaq Dar said that Pakistan registered inflation of 29.2pc in the 11-month period from July 2022 to May 2023, against 11.3pc in the same period last year.
The government had targeted inflation at 11.5pc for FY2023, missing its target significantly because of a sharp depreciation of the rupee and global supply shocks resulting in pricey imports.
“Government is taking administrative actions, policy reforms and relief measures to control the prices of essential items,” he said, adding that coalition government is committed to maintain the strategic reserves of wheat, sugar and pulses.
District price control committees are also monitoring the prices of essential items to ensure their availability at reasonable prices, Dar added.
He said that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) tax collection grew 16.1pc to Rs6,210bn from July to May, compared to Rs5,348.2bn in the year-ago period.
According to the document, Pakistan’s exports declined by 9.9pc during July to March to $ 21bn compared to $23bn in the same period last year.
The document showed that the current account balanced improved by 74.1pc, recording a deficit of $3.4bn during Jul-Mar FY2023, against a deficit of $13bn in the year-ago period.
