SBP releases annual report on Pakistan’s economy

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has released its annual report on Pakistan’s economy.
The central bank’s report said that difficult but necessary economic stabilization decisions were made in the first nine months of the last financial year. Growth turned negative 52 years later.
According to the report, due to the stability achieved in 9 months, business and households were provided support during the epidemic, under which 14 million households were provided emergency cash during the epidemic.
The report said that interest rates were reduced by 6.25 percent in three months and the volume of government debt was limited to 1.1 percent of GDP.
The report says that the current direction of the economy is similar to that of Corona, and that future progress depends on the global situation, while vaccine news is encouraging.
The report further said that competition needs to be enhanced by removing the flaws in the structure of the economy, a more sustainable solution to the country’s fiscal imbalances is needed, increasing tax revenues to reduce reliance on non-tax revenue and FAT.
While the energy sector needs to address cost, infrastructure and governance issues, digital infrastructure needs to be further improved through development.
According to the report, GDP growth is projected to be 1.5 to 2.5 percent in the next financial year and the average rate of inflation is projected to be 7 to 9 percent in the current financial year, while the current account deficit is projected to be 1 to 2 percent of GDP.