National Economic Council sets economic growth target at 3.5pc
Accommodating the demands of the coalition partners, the PML-N-led National Economic Council (NEC) on Tuesday tentatively approved an overall development budget of Rs2.709 trillion, almost 24 per cent higher than the current year’s budget estimates of Rs2.19tr. This includes a federal public sector development programme (PSDP) of Rs1.15tr, including Rs200bn for public-private partnership and cumulative provincial annual development plans of about Rs1.159tr. With this public sector investment in mind, the NEC — the country’s highest forum of the federation on economic decision-making — set a GDP growth target of 3.5pc for next year from a paltry 0.3pc this year against a budget target of 5pc. It was disclosed for the first time before the council that Pakistan’s population growth, according to the latest census stood at 3.6pc, making it the fastest-growing country in the world. With this rate, the participants were warned, the country’s population would go far beyond 340 million by 2035 —adding almost double the size of South Korea’s current population in 10 years.