Finance Minister expects a growth rate of 4 percent for current fiscal year

Finance Minister expects a growth rate of 4 percent for current fiscal year

Thursday, April 19, 2012: Hafeez Shaikh, Finance Minister of Pakistan, has revealed that the country is expecting a growth of about 4 percent in the current fiscal year, even though; Pakistan has to pay $1.4 billion in loan repayments.

Shaikh said this in a speech, which he was delivering at the Brookings Institution. Though, most part of the speech was about the current administration’s shortcomings when it came to sound economic policies.

The finance minister also talked about the government’s failure to implement Value Added Tax, energy sector problems and the challenges faced following the floods of 2010.

The finance minister said that Pakistan budgeted for the loan repayments, most of which have been disbursed. He said that Pakistan was expected to grow by 4% this year.

However, when asked about the IMF projection of 3.4% growth, Shaikh said the country has revised those figures since an increase in growth was registered in the agriculture and manufacturing sector.

The finance minister said the economic managers believe growth would be above 3.8%. He said that while he would not want to comment on the figures of the Coalition Support Funds, the administration is talking to the US on the issue
and believes it would be resolved soon.

The US halted disbursement of Coalition Support Funds last year as bilateral relations went into freefall after the Raymond Davis incident and the Abbottabad raid.

Shaikh, who is in town leading a four-member team to attend the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings 2012, said that the government was trying to improve the energy sector.  It is a historical failure of Pakistan that the country has
a small tax base, he added.

Shaikh said that the United States had been providing assistance – the country helped them gain market access to the EU and played a role in the transit trade agreement with Afghanistan.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=19756

Posted by Wajahat Javed on Apr 21 2012. Filed under Business, Pakistan, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry