ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi says economy perform significanly better in almost all respects during the last five years as compared to what the present Government inherited in 2013.
He was briefing newsmen about performance of the economy during tenure of the present government along with Minister for Finance Miftah Ismail and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb.
Giving comparable figures, the Prime Minister said in 2013 GDP growth was just 3.68% which has gone up to 5.79% this year. In dollar terms, the GDP stood at 231 billion dollars in 2013 and today it is 313 billion dollars.
He said industrial growth in 2013 was 0.75% and today it is 5.8%. Growth in large-scale manufacturing in first nine months of 2012-13 was 3.53% which is 5.89% in the comparable period this year.
The Prime Minister said construction sector grew eight times as compared to 2013; service sector growth went up from 5.13% in 2013 to 6.43% this year. Agriculture growth in 2013 was 2.86% in 2013, which is now 3.81%.
He said in 2013 credit availability was 259 billion rupees and with three time growth it is 736 billion rupees now.
He said wheat production went up from 24.21 million tonnes to 25.49 million tonnes; rice 5.54 million tonnes to 7.44 million tonnes, maize from 4.22 million tonnes to 5.7 million ronnes, and sugarcase 63.75 million tonnes to 81.1 million tonnes. Cotton production in 2013 was 13.03 million bales, which went down to 11.94 million bales.
The Prime Minister said inflation in 2013 was 7.75% which has come down to 3.77% now.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi acknowledged that there were challenges in the export sector . Exports in 2013 stood at 20.55 billion dollar, then came down for various reasons and now again picked up to 20.6 billion dollars for 2017-18.
He said imports in 2013 stood at 33.4 billion dollar and now these stood at 44.6 billion dollar due to hike in oil price in the international market and import of machinery for developmental projects including those under CPEC. NNI
