Government hopes to achieve 6pc GDP growth: Miftah

The government hopes to achieve GDP growth of six per cent during the current fiscal year, which will be the highest in last 10 years, said Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs Miftah Ismail on Wednesday.

Miftah said this while commenting on the recent IMF post-monitoring program report which suggested GDP growth at 5.6pc during fiscal year 2017/2018.

He said that IMF had appreciated the growth trend in Pakistan. “In fact, they [IMF] suggested Pakistan should slow down the economy,” Miftah added.

On the international monetary body’s observation regarding balance of payments and declining foreign exchange reserves, the adviser said that the IMF analysis was written before the devaluation of the local currency in December 2017.

He said that trade data for the month of February 2018 suggested that the current account deficit of the country was narrowing.