Pakistan GDP
: The
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics
reported on Tuesday that the country’s economy expanded by 2.09% in the third quarter of the 2023-2024 financial year, driven by robust growth in the agricultural sector. The provisional estimate for GDP growth in the fiscal year ending June 2024 stands at 2.38%.
According to a Reuters report, this GPP growth in Pakistan comes after a revised contraction of 0.21% in the 2023 fiscal year, which was marked by political instability, tax and gas tariff increases, import restrictions, and a significant depreciation of the rupee, leading to a rapid rise in inflation.
The State Bank of Pakistan, in its half-yearly report last week, forecasted real GDP growth of 2-3% for the 2024 fiscal year.
Pakistan started releasing quarterly GDP data in November to meet the structural benchmarks of the recently completed $3 billion IMF bailout program.
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The bureau revised its estimates for the first and second quarters of the 2023-2024 financial year to 2.71% and 1.79%, respectively, from the previous estimates of 2.5% and 1%.
The provisional growth in agriculture for the 2024 financial year is estimated at 6.25%, while both industry and services are expected to grow by 1.21%. “The healthy growth of agriculture is mainly due to double-digit growth in important crops,” the bureau said, attributing the positive outcome to bumper wheat, cotton, and rice crops.
Furthermore, the central bank reported a current account surplus of $491 million in April 2024, with the July-April current account deficit improving significantly to $0.2 billion from $3.9 billion in the corresponding period of the previous year.
