Macroeconomic indicators showing positive trend, reforms yielding results: PM

DAVOS (APP) - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said Pakistan’s economy was showing clear signs of improvement and the country was moving forward with renewed confidence, as key economic indicators continued to strengthen.

Addressing an event at the Pakistan Pavilion on the sidelines of the 56th Annual Meetings of the World Economic Forum, the prime minister said Pakistan had achieved macroeconomic stability after difficult but necessary reforms and was now firmly focused on export-led growth and sustainable development.

“Our inflation has come down sharply from 30 percent to 5.5 percent, while the policy rate has been reduced from 22.5 percent to 10.5 percent,” he said, adding that the improvement reflected disciplined economic management.

He noted that Pakistan’s IT exports had shown reassuring progress and now stood at around $3 billion annually through offshore channels.

The prime minister said that Pakistan’s exports continued to face challenges but the future path was unambiguous.

“Pakistan has to pursue export-led growth,” he said, underlining reforms in revenue collection as a key pillar of the strategy.

He said the government had introduced fundamental changes in the tax system, which was being fully digitized. As a result, the tax-to-GDP ratio had increased to 10.5 percent from 9 percent a few years ago, calling it a significant achievement.

Highlighting sectoral opportunities, Prime Minister Shehbaz said agricultural exports had performed well in the previous year, while Pakistan was entering the mining and minerals sector.

He said agreements had been signed with American and Chinese companies to tap the country’s vast untapped resources in Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

He said Pakistan was also moving rapidly in emerging fields such as information technology, artificial intelligence and crypto, terming the country’s large youth population both a challenge and an opportunity.

Prime Minister Shehbaz also highlighted transparent privatization efforts, including Pakistan International Airlines, and said further privatization and outsourcing were planned in airports, power distribution companies and transmission lines.

Referring to the IMF programme, he said Pakistan had adhered to stringent conditions in letter and spirit, adding that the Fund was now citing Pakistan as a success story for developing countries.