Daily Times

A series of data released by authoritative international agencies and the Pakistani government show that now Pakistan’s economy is entering a period of fast recovery and development.

This is the result of the Imran Khan administration’s wise and decisive lockdown strategy to contain COVID-19 and sound economic policies in the past few years. This is closely related to the Pakistani government’s commitment to work with China to promote the building of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

This is also closely related to the Pakistani government’s active implementation of the policy of regional harmony and the timely shift from political diplomacy to economic diplomacy.

These views were expressed by Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law and former Chinese Defense Attach in South Asian countries in a statement issued on Tuesday.

He noted that during the first four months of the current financial year that is, from July to October this year, the Large Scale Manufacturing Industries (LSMI) production grew by 5.15pc, the exports in rupee term witnessed an increase of 25.20pc, of which IT exports surged by 39pc, textile commodities exports by 26.55pc, food group exports by 26.91pc, spices exports by18.83pc, rice exports by 22.99pc, fruits exports by 21.29pc. The remittances into Pakistan grew by 26pc, reaching $33 billion in 2021.

Recently, Fitch, an international credit rating agency, predicted that Pakistan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate would reach 4.2pc in the fiscal year 2021-2022, higher than 3.9pc in the fiscal year 2020-2021. Now Fitch and other international credit rating agencies all believe that Pakistan has good prospects for economic recovery and development.

He said that it was also worth mentioning that the inflation rate in Pakistan had decreased recently. According to the latest data of Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance, in July this year, the food inflation rates in urban and rural areas were 15pc and 17pc. By September, these two figures dropped to 9.1pc and 10pc respectively.

He concluded that after the serious impact of the pandemic, Pakistan’s sound economic policies are now gradually playing a role. The achievements are hard-won and deserve congratulation.