Need stressed to devise policies for economic growth

LAHORE: Speakers at the launching ceremony of a report have stressed the need for devising short-term and long-term strategies for achieving potential growth of the economy.

Speaking at the launching of “The state of the economy: changing world-Pakistan reset” at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), they highlighted critical challenges that needed to be addressed for achieving the desired pace of economic growth.

Burki Institute of Public Policy launched the report at a ceremony attended by prominent economists, academia and representatives of civil society organisations.

The report provided an objective overview of the economic situation of Pakistan and the pathway ahead in the wake of geo-strategic/geo-political and geo-economic dynamics in the region.

It highlights the need for Pakistan to ‘reset’ to be able to respond effectively to the emerging challenges both nationally and globally given its geo-strategic location.

LCCI president Mian Nauman Kabir, vice president Haris Ateeq, Shahid Najam, Dr Farukh Iqbal, Aiman Adnan, Lt Gen Ghulam Mustafa (Retd) and Prof Javed Akram were the key speakers.

The speakers called for a stable domestic macro-policy environment to cope with the key long-term challenges being faced by Pakistan.

They said Pakistan has achieved a big success in managing the Covid-19 pandemic. The latest update of the “return to normalcy” index created by economic magazine shows Pakistan ranks third globally behind Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Mian Nauman Kabir said that the report provided analysis of the economic performance, Covid-19 impacts on selected social sectors, and Pakistan’s options to reposition with respect to changing regional geopolitics.

Before the pandemic, he said, Pakistan’s economy had just started moving towards stability.

“Our economy is now facing economic challenges, including high inflation (11.5 per cent), persistent devaluation in currency, relatively excessive policy rate (8.75 per cent), escalating fiscal deficit and continued rise in trade deficit. I believe that there is always a way to get out of any crisis,” he said, adding that the country desperately needed a path to economic recovery through medium- to long-term macroeconomic policies.

“We are lucky that our country did not plunge into unmanageable crises,” he said, while praising the government for prudent policies that helped check the spread of the Covid-19.

From complete lockdown to smart lockdown, all the strategies brought the desired results, which were praised by the World Health Organization and many countries, he said, adding that the report has calculated the impact of Covid-19 on various social sectors and proposed certain steps to bring improvement.

Due to consistent rise in national imports, the trade deficit seems to be out of control, he said, adding that many projects being carried out under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) have entered into the next stage in which Pakistan has to import more machinery.

The only way to subside the impact of the trade deficit was to enhance exports.

“We are keen to know as to what measures this report has suggested in this connection,” he added.

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