ISLAMABAD – Federal government has claimed to have achieved 5.8% economicgrowth rate in its last year in power that is the highest rate in the past12 years, as almost all sectors of the economy have shown a betterperformance in the outgoing fiscal year.

The government hopes that the decent economic growth rate will givepolitical advantage to the ruling party in the upcoming general elections.However, unemployment remained high as most of the growth came from theservices sector that is not job intensive.

The industrial sector’s growth also fell short of the target.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the monetary value of all goods andservices produced in one year, is projected to have grown at a rate of5.79% during the fiscal year 2017-18 ending on June 30, the NationalAccounts Committee (NAC) announced on Monday.

In its 99th meeting, the NAC worked out the annual growth rate on the basisof seven to eight months of data due to the government’s decision toadvance the calendar of the budget to April 27.

Last time in 2005-06, the country had achieved the 5.8% economic growthrate. In dollar terms, the size of Pakistan’s economy has projected to begrown to $312.7 billion by fiscal year 2017-18. However, the per capitaincome in dollar terms grew marginally by 0.6% to only $1638.2 per person.

In rupee terms, the per capita income was Rs180,204 this year – up fromRs162,230, showing a growth of 11%. The economic growth rate was slightlylower than the official target of 6% but better than the projections ofinternational financial institutions and independent economists.