Pakistan’s Economy Grows by 3.07% in Q4 

Pakistan’s economy has posted a stable growth of 3.07 percent during Q4 of FY 2023-24, according to the estimates approved by the National Accounts Committee (NAC) on Monday.  In Q4, the growth in agriculture, industry and services stands at 6.76 percent, -3.59 percent and 3.69 percent respectively.  The committee approved the revised first, second and third quarter estimates of 2023-24. Overall GDP for Q1, Q2 and Q3 for FY 2023-24 has witnessed a revised growth of 2.69 percent, 1.97 percent and 2.36 percent as compared to 2.71 percent, 1.79 percent and 2.09 percent presented in 109th meeting of the NAC respectively.  The committee also approved the updated provisional growth of GDP at 2.52 percent during FY 2023-24 based on improved data from the sources as compared to 2.38 percent estimated in the previous meeting.  Moreover, the committee approved the updated revised growth during FY 2022-23 at -0.22 percent, which was estimated at -0.21 percent in the previous meeting. During Q4, crops have posted a double-digit growth of 14.03 percent. The growth in important crops stands at 26.98 percent mainly due to wheat (31.58 M.T) and partly due to the low base effect of corresponding quarter i.e. -7.93 percent during Q4 of FY23.    Due to the decline in fruits, Q4 growth in other crops is negative i.e. -1.53 percent as compared to -0.64 percent in last year. While livestock has grown at 3.98 percent vs. 4.31 percent in Q4, a high-base effect of 15.12 percent has resulted in negative growth of 0.35 percent in forestry.    Despite a positive growth in large-scale manufacturing (4.19 percent vs. -19.5 percent), the remaining components of the industry i.e. mining & quarrying (-5.32 percent vs. 1.22 percent), electricity, gas and water supply (-35.57 percent vs. 9.15 percent) and construction (-0.47 percent vs. -20.46 percent) have registered negative growth rates during Q4.    Although growth rates in finance and insurance (-2.55 percent) and public administration and social security (-0.18 percent) are negative, the overall growth in services is positive (3.69 percent) during Q4 2023-24 due to wholesale & retail trade (4.79 percent), transportation & storage (2.11 percent), information and communication (7.95 percent), education (9.04 percent), human health & social work activities (5.86 percent) and other private services (3.38 percent).