Apropos the news stories covering the visit of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries by State Bank of Pakistan Governor Ashraf Mahmood Wathra and SBP team, some of the facts mentioned during the Q&A session have been incorrectly reported. To keep the record straight and avoid any misunderstanding, it is clarified that following facts were mentioned during the meeting:
To a question comparing low credit to GDP ratio in the country with other countries and attributing it to government borrowing, SBP responded by saying that one reason for low credit to GDP ratio is the presence of a large informal sector of the economy. Private sector credit is already on the rise and this could improve further with a higher tax to GDP ratio as higher tax revenues would reduce government’s borrowing needs.
During the speech of the governor, numbers relating to major macroeconomic indicators, including workers’ remittances, were also shown in a slide. According to the slide, workers’ remittances stood at US$19.9 billion at the end of FY16, which grew by 11 per cent during 2009-13. The news stories have reported 19.9 as the per cent growth in workers’ remittances during FY16 which is not correct.
