Economy shrinks from 6.1% to 0.3% under PDM govt's watch.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's economic growth rate plummeted to 0.3% in the outgoing fiscal year due to severe restrictions imposed on the imports in an effort to avoid sovereign default, leaving the industrial sector crippled with spillovers on the services sector.

The 0.29% growth rate is the lowest increase in the national output in the past four years that exposes the mismanagement of the economy that is highly insufficient to meet the needs of 250 million people.

Despite severe floods, the agricultural sector still posted 1.6% growth, beating all forecasts of contraction due to a devastating impact on crops. The industrial sector contacted by 2.94%. But the services sector -- the single largest sector in the economy -- showed nominal growth of 0.9%.

The government has missed all sectoral targets, thanks to its economic mismanagement that also caused massive layoffs and contributed towards the 59-year-high inflation rate of 36.4%.

The National Accounts Committee, in a controversial fashion, met on Wednesday night and approved the provisional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for fiscal year 2022-23, ending on June 30. Planning Secretary Zafar Ali Shah chaired the meeting.

The outgoing fiscal year will be marked in Pakistan's history as the one when the country had experienced devastating floods that washed away crops, a highly mismanaged economy and a steep fall in the purchasing power of the people due to the record inflation.

The government has inflicted heavy losses on the economy by devaluing the rupee and increasing the utility prices in the hope of the getting a deal from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In the end, neither the IMF programme could be revived nor could the economy be saved from disaster.

The provisional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for the year 2022-23 is estimated at 0.29%, announced the planning Secretary after a meeting of the National Accounts Committee.

The government postponed the NAC meeting four times in one week due to disagreement over the increase in national output, according to the sources. Some officials of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics shuttled from one office to another to reach a consensus, the sources added.

It is a recession in growth, but not an overall recession in economy, said Dr Nadeem Javaid, chief economist of the Planning Commission.

There was broad-based slump in the economic output, mostly because of the government's mismanagement and also adverse impact of the...