ISLAMABAD: Pakistan witnessed a significant improvement in domesticsecurity situation, accruing lowest annual losses from war on terrorismwhich declined to a 16-year low of $2 billion in this fiscal year,according to the Economic Survey launched on Thursday.

Cumulatively, Pakistan’s losses on account of terrorism mounted to $126.8billion since after 9/11 terror attacks but the country continues to bleedbecause of state-sponsored terrorism by its immediate neighbours, thesurvey noted.

Although, the losses are still significant on public finances and nationaleconomy, the downward trajectory in yearly additional losses marksimprovement in overall security situation.

This year’s losses were $3.4 billion less than what the country suffered inthe previous fiscal year, reflecting positive results of the military-ledoffensives.

These losses are in effect lower than what the country suffered in a singleyear since 2001-02 when it lost $2.67 billion on account of terrorism.

“Pakistan continues to be a target of terrorism, including state-sponsoredterrorism from its immediate neighbours,” according to the Survey.

Pakistan started including the cost of terrorism in its annual economicperformance presentations after the 9/11 terror attacks, taking intoaccount heavy loss of lives, missed economic opportunities and damages toinfrastructure.

The Economic Survey noted that Pakistan’s success in countering terrorismwas acknowledged in the recent Global Terrorism Index Report 2017 publishedby the Sydney-based Institute for Economic and Peace. According to thisreport, Pakistan ranked at 5th out of 163 countries with a score of 8.4 outof 10. In 2007 the country was ranked at 4th.

This is the third consecutive year that Pakistan has witnessed fewer terrorattacks and deaths, according to the Economic Survey.