The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said that the country’s economy grew by 2.09% in the third quarter of the fiscal year 2023–2024, largely due to stronger growth in agriculture.
The bureau also stated that the estimated provisional growth rate of the GDP for the fiscal year that ends in June 2024 is 2.38%.
This contrasts with a revised 0% economic contraction in 2023 caused by political unrest, a sharp decline in the value of the rupee, restricted imports, and a combination of rising tax and gas tariffs that quickly increased inflation.
Pakistan’s central bank projected real GDP growth of 2%-3% for the fiscal year 2024 in its half-yearly report.
Since Pakistan only started disclosing quarterly growth figures in November 2023, there were no comparable third-quarter GDP data from 2022. That was carried out in accordance with the structural requirements of the USD 3 billion bailout programme that was agreed upon and finished last month with the IMF.
The bureau updated its estimates for the first and second quarters of the 2023–2024 fiscal year’s GDP to 2.71% and 1.79%, respectively, from the previous estimates of 2.5% and 1%.
It also stated that the estimated growth for the 2024 fiscal year in agriculture was 6.25%, and the growth for industry and services was 1.21%.
“The healthy growth of agriculture is mainly due to double-digit growth in important crops”, the bureau said, adding that bumper crops of wheat, cotton, and rice contributed to the positive result.
Meanwhile, the State Bank of Pakistan has paid back USD 1 billion in Eurobonds as the financially strapped nation gets ready for a new, long-term bailout from the IMF to help manage its needs for external financing and economic recovery.
The Central Bank of Pakistan declared that it had fulfilled the dollar bond payment for the 10-year bond, which was issued in 2014.