Economic resilience

THE Economic Survey 2025-26, released on Thursday, highlights economic resilience of the country despite formidable internal and external challenges during the year. Speaking at the launching ceremony, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb emphasized that the size of the economy reached the record level of $452.1 billion and the per capita income surged to 1901 dollars as compared to $1751 last year. More importantly, the GDP growth rate of 3.7% was less than the envisaged target of 4.2% but still it was the highest in the last four years. There is no denying the fact that the country could not achieve most of the targets for the year but performance of the economy needs to be appreciated as it successfully withstood shocks of the tariff war, super floods and regional conflict triggered by the US/Israel invasion of Iran, which put additional strains on the economy. It is significant to note that fiscal deficit and primary balance related targets agreed with the IMF were largely achieved while the current account deficit remained within manageable limits in the outgoing fiscal year. Foreign exchange reserves increased to $17.2 billion (with import cover of 2.75 months) and remittances by overseas Pakistanis are set to cross the mark of $41 billion. However, investment and savings as a percentage of GDP remained stagnant; inflation entered double digits; exports declined; imports surged; FBR’s tax collection target was missed and public debt in absolute terms ballooned. The positive trends underlined by the Finance Minister included growth recorded by 16 out of 22 LSM sectors; 10% increase in demand for cement; fertilizer 17%; petroleum 5%; auto sector 31% and mobile phone demand by 9%. He acknowledged that some international companies left the country but pointed out that many more came in or expanded their investments. The FBR chairman stated that the tax collection in dollar terms stood at $32.6 billion in June 2024, which increased to $41.9 billion in 2025 and $46 b