The pre-budget document will be introduced in the National Assembly by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, the ministry announced in a statement. The study is being released ahead of the federal budget 2024–25, which is scheduled to be unveiled on Wednesday, June 12.
The Economic Survey of Pakistan will include information on the main socio-economic advancements, business performance, and economic trends of the country’s many economic sectors, such as capital markets, health, education, transportation and communication, energy, agriculture, manufacturing and industry, services, and information technology and telecom.
The survey will also provide a detailed description of the annual trends of the main economic indicators with reference to employment, population, employment trends, trade and payments, public debt, inflation, employment, climate change, and social safeguards.
Based on the Planning Commission’s estimates presented to the Annual Plan Coordination Committee (APCC), Pakistan’s economy was confronted with serious difficulties at the start of 2023–24, mostly because of the delayed effects of the previous year’s economic disruptions. Nonetheless, in 2023–2024, the economy expanded by 2.4% and recovered somewhat.
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The agriculture sector was the main engine of growth in 2023–2024, expanding by 6.3% as a result of record production of rice, wheat, and cotton.
The 1.2% growth in the industrial sector was mostly caused by a slowdown in large-scale manufacturing. Nonetheless, there was an increase in construction, small-scale industry, and mining and quarrying.
While wholesale and retail trade grew by only 0.3%, the services sector grew by 1.2% as well. Due to limited demand, transport, storage, and communications all saw a meager 1.2% gain.
Between July 2023 and March 2024, total income collection increased by 41%, above the 36.6% growth in total expenses. Revenues from taxes and non-taxes increased by 29.3% and 89.8%, respectively. The amount spent on markup made up 40% of the overall cost.
The average rate of inflation from July to April in 2023–24 was 26%, down from 28.2% during the same period in the previous year. There has been a consistent downward trend in inflation since January 2024.