ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Asad Umar on Monday envisaged that thecountry’s economic growth rate would be the highest in 15 years by 2023 onthe completion of five-year term of the the incumbent government.
Without giving any consolidated target figures, he said it would not be amanaged growth, but a sustainable one, as the government had initiatedvarious reforms to put the economy on right track and resolve its majorissues.
Launching a medium-term framework “A Roadmap for Stability, Growth andProductive Employment” here at the BISP headquarters, the minister said,“More importantly, this sustainable growth would not be achieved byincreasing the fiscal deficit, nor by creating balance of payments crisis,but would be on sustainable grounds after resolving all the fundamentalissues of the economy.”
He said the World Bank had reported that if Pakistan continued its journeyon the right path with consistency, it would have $2 trillion economy by2047 and would be ranked among countries having upper middle incomes.
Asad viewed that economic policies should be devised keeping in view futureprospects. If the policies were focused on winning next elections insteadof welfare of future generations, the same cycle of problems would berepeated.
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He expressed the hope that after five years, the next finance ministerwould not be explaining here how he had to face balance of payment crisisor to opt for International Monetary Fund (IMF) assistance, or the reasonsfor increasing inflation and depreciation of rupee.
The agreement the government was going to sign with the IMF would be thelast one, he hoped.
