ISLAMABAD (Eshfak Mughal):- The coalition Federal Government led by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has missed major economic indicators including GDP growth, exports and inflation targets for the current fiscal year 2022-23 mainly due to IMF stabilization program and flash flood and monsoon rains.
Sources said that Commerce ministry has estimated for the exports for the current fiscal year in keeping in view of demand in international market and manufacturing capability of the local industry. The export was projected around $27.5 billion to $28 billion against the original target of $32 billion of current fiscal year.
Pakistani exports was slashed due to many reasons including lowest production of cotton due to flash floods and heavy rains during the current fiscal year.
The unprecedented floods in 2022 significantly damaged the standing cotton crop, slashing overall production to a mere 4.76 million bales against the target of 9 million bales. This has put negative impact on the production of local textile industry which reduced exports.
Sources said that the tight policy to open the LCs for import has also played main role in reducing the country’s exports as Pakistan imports some raw material for exports during the current fiscal year.
On the other hand, the import has been projected around approximately $56 billion against the target of $68 billion of current year due to some difficult situation to open the LCs.
Consequently, the trade deficit would be around $28 billion during current year.
Sources said that textile sector contributes in the export is around 60% which will be estimated to remain between $16 billion to $17 billion for the current fiscal year.
The country will also miss $5 billion IT exports target for the financial year 2022-23, sources added.
Sources further said that government is considering to fix $30 billion export for next fiscal year 2023-24 which is lower then the current year $32 billion target.
On the other hand, the import target would be $62 billion in next fiscal year 2023-24.
It is pertinent to note that Pakistan’s exports during July to April FY23 were recorded at $23.174 billion whereas the import remained $ 46.887 billion in first 10 months of 2022-23.
Sources said that the government has also failed to get target of GDP growth mainly due to stabilization program of IMF and flood and monsoon rains during the current fiscal year. The government is projecting GDP growth around one percent against the original target of five percent during the current fiscal year.
The PDM has also set target of inflation 12 percent for the current fiscal year. According to the initial results the inflation will be around 30 percent during the current fiscal year due to price hike in international market, new taxation, energy prices in the country and the free fall of local currency against the greenback currency.