Economic Survey 2022-23: Report card of a tempestuous year

Finding himself on the back foot as he attempted to defend a jarring slowdown in economic growth in the outgoing fiscal year, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, while unveiling the Pakistan Economic Survey 2022-23 on Thursday, spoke less about the dismal performance of various sectors of the national economy and more on the global environment and economic fundamentals the PDM government had inherited when it came to power in April last year. Accompanied by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr Aisha Ghous Pasha, the finance minister unveiled that the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the fiscal year 2023 — projected to grow at 5 per cent — only managed 0.3pc growth, with agriculture and services scraping along with 1.5pc and 0.86pc growth and the industrial sector contracting by a worrying 3pc. Alluding to the previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) regime, Mr Dar complained that “the [political] project, conceived in 2010, flourished in 2018, and reached its culmination in 2022,” but, in the process, “put the country in reverse gear”.