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Saturday, June 23, 2012


Economic growth notable despite challenges: SBP

* Report says persistent inflation and pressure on fiscal and current accounts remain key challenges for economy

Staff Report

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said the economic growth of 3.7 percent during fiscal year 2011-12 is higher than the 3.0 percent realised in the previous year, but less than the target of 4.2 percent.

“Nevertheless, this performance is notable, given the considerable damage to the cotton crop due to floods in August 2011, ongoing energy shortages, the rise in international oil prices, and security concerns,” the central bank said in its Third Quarterly Report for the fiscal year 2011-12 on the state of economy, released on Friday.

The report said that this growth has also been more broad-based with a larger contribution from the commodity producing sectors compared to FY11.

Moreover, as in the past, growth has been driven by domestic consumption (both private and public), which was partially offset by a decline in domestic investment and external demand, the report said and added that the continuous decline in investment since the macro instability in 2008, is a source of growing concern as it will stifle the long-term growth of the economy.

It observed that although Pakistan’s economy has shown some recovery in terms of GDP growth, the key macro indicators still remain weak. Persistent inflation and pressure on the fiscal and current accounts remain the key challenges for the economy, it added. The SBP report said that while low investment and energy shortages have direct growth implications, the persistently high fiscal deficit remains a major risk to the macro-economy.

Current information suggests a budget deficit of 4.3 percent of GDP for Jul-Mar FY12, and it appears that the budgetary gap for the full year will exceed the revised target of 4.7 percent, it said, adding that overall revenues are lower than expected.

Though the growth in current expenditure is lower compared to the previous year, the government has enhanced its development spending, said the report.

“While such spending should improve the country’s long-term growth prospects, this also creates financing pressures.” “At the same time, despite efforts to reform public sector enterprises (PSEs), the operational efficiency of key PSEs has not improved,” it said, adding that this continues to add to the country’s fiscal burden.

The report said that in terms of financing this gap, the government relied more on domestic sources as external financing dried up. The government borrowed Rs 847.5 billion in Jul-Mar FY12 from domestic sources, compared to Rs 700.1 billion in the corresponding period of FY11, it said and added that lately, this has been increasingly skewed towards borrowing from the central bank.

“Such borrowing is inflationary and a risk to macro-stability. Currently, two acts, namely the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation (FRDL) Act (2005) and the newly amended SBP Act provide guidelines on overall debt stocks and borrowing from the central bank, respectively,” the report said. It added that the large fiscal deficit has resulted in a sharp increase in Pakistan’s debt. It said the government domestic debt recorded an increase of Rs 1.2 trillion during Jul-Mar 2012 to reach Rs 7.2 trillion. There is greater reliance on short-term borrowing, which is creating liquidity management problems for the central bank, and rollover and interest rate risks for the government, it said.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk



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