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Agri growth not up to mark: UNDP
ISLAMABAD, April 17:
The UNDP said Friday that the increase of a mere
4.1 percent in the agriculture sector is not up to
the mark, as in the same conditions the growth in
neighbouring India was registered at 9.7 percent
in 2003.
Sarfraz Khan Qureshi, the UNDP director said this
when he presented “Economic and Social Survey of
Asia and the Pacific 2004” at a special function
here Friday. Pakistan’s GDP growth has risen to
5.5 percent from 5 percent as the policies of the
government have begun to take effect, he said.
He also said Pakistan will have to improve its
annual performance in various economic fields.
“Pakistan needs to take some concrete steps by
following encouraging instances from across the
Indian economy,” he said
“An exceptional performance of the large-scale
manufacturing sector was recorded as the sector
expanded by 8.7 percent in the year 2003 against
the previous year’s 4.9 percent,” he said.
He further said export earnings increased to a
record $11.1 billion in the fiscal year 2003.
“This represented an expansion of over 22 percent
compared with a negative growth of 0.7 percent in
the fiscal year 2002,” he said. He said the
textile-manufacturing sector also observed an
upward growth. “The textile sector which
constitutes about two third of Pakistan’s total
exports grew by 25 percent in 2003,” he said.
The UNDP official said receipts from other
manufactured exports increased by almost 11
percent with engineering goods, chemicals and
pharmaceutical products, petroleum products and
sports goods showing high growth rates.
He said the import expenditures at $12.2 billion
in 2003 represented an increase of 18.2 percent as
compared with the negative growth of 3.6 percent
in the previous year. “Higher spending on non-food
and non-oil imports, by almost 22 percent in the
year 2003, was instrumental in improving local
production and manufacturing activities,” he said.
Mr Qureshi said the current accounts surplus
improved to 5.9 percent of GDP in 2003 from 4.8
percent in the previous year. The inflow of
overseas workers’ remittances, he said, went up to
an all-time high, from $2.4 billion in 2002 to
$4.2 billion in the year 2003. The UNDP official
also said driven by the current account and
capital account surpluses, the surplus in the
overall balance of payments amounted to $4.6
billion or 6.7 percent in 2003.
Daily Times |
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Pakissan.com; Advisory Point
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