Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb says Pakistan’s economy demonstrated resilience with GDP growth rate recorded at 3.7 percent during the current financial year despite internal and external challenges.
Launching the Economic Survey 2025-26 in Islamabad today, he presented a comprehensive overview of the country’s economic performance during the outgoing fiscal year.
He was accompanied by Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar and Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani.
The Finance Minister emphasized that the growth figure of 3.7 percent is the highest in the last four years. He said the economy remained on the path from stabilization to growth.
He said that the country’s economic size reached the record level of 126.9 trillion rupees or 452.1 billion dollars.
Sharing the main statistics of the economic survey, the Finance Minister mentioned that the per capita income reached 1901 dollars as compared to 1751 dollars last year.
Highlighting the sectoral performance, the Finance Minister said the agriculture grew by 2.89 percent notwithstanding the floods and the industry by 3.51 percent.
He said livestock sector continues to grow from strength to strength. He said large scale manufacturing witnessed growth of 6.1 percent which is also the highest in the last four years. He said that sixteen out of twenty-two sectors in the manufacturing saw positive growth.
Muhammad Aurangzeb emphasized that the services has always remained a strong sector. He said growth of 4.9 percent was seen in this sector in outgoing financial year which is also the highest level in the last four years. He specifically mentioned that the 7.52 percent growth was seen in the Information and Communication Services.
On the fiscal side, the Finance Minister said the fiscal deficit remained 0.7 percent during the first nine months of current financial year. He said 10.1 percent growth was witnessed in the revenue collection of FBR and reduction of twenty three percent in markup payment provided the additional fiscal space.
On the external side, Muhammad Aurangzeb said the current account surplus remained seventy-two million dollars during the first nine months of current financial year. He also mentioned increase in remittances and investments in Roshan Digital Account.
Referring to the export side, he said IT exports have crossed 3.8 billion dollars and these are expected to reach 4.5 billion dollars. He said the country’s foreign exchange reserves stand at 17.1 billion dollars and these are expected to reach eighteen billion dollars by the end of June.
Muhammad Aurangzeb also highlighted an increase in demand across several sectors including cement by ten percent, fertilizers seventeen percent, petroleum products five percent and mobile phones nine percent.
Regarding private sector credit, Muhammad Aurangzeb said it has reached around 934 billion rupees, reflecting an increase of 22 percent. He further said that agricultural lending has increased by 15 percent. He said the government is advancing the Zarkhez-e scheme to facilitate small farmers.
Referring to the affordable housing scheme, the Minister said that eleven billion rupees have been disbursed, while 90 billion rupees have been approved.
He further said the literacy rate has risen to 63 percent, while the proportion of out-of-school children has declined to 28 percent.
Speaking about the health sector, Muhammad Aurangzeb said the infant mortality rate has decreased from 60 to 47 per 1,000 births, while immunization coverage has reached 73 percent.