PES FY2026: GDP growth higher than last year but falls short of 4.2pc target
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The government unveiled the Pakistan Economic Survey (PES) for FY2025-26 on Thursday, according to which GDP growth was recorded at 3.7pc in the outgoing fiscal year. This is higher than last year’s growth of 3.18pc but falls short of its target of 4.2pc. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb presented the survey, which he said told a story of resilience and discipline shown during the previous year. He said the country began the outgoing fiscal year with uncertainty due to tariffs. “Then, by the end of July, we reached a point where we could be in a competitive position with respect to our exports, especially to the US,” he added. Then there were floods in August and September 2025, followed by a regional conflict in March this year. “These challenges tested Pakistan’s resilience,” he said, adding that the government was able to deal with them and remained on the path of moving from stabilisation to growth. GDP growth He said GDP growth in FY26 was recorded at 3.7 per cent, against a target of 4.2pc. However, the economic survey stated that the economy “accelerated its growth momentum in FY2026” compared to the previous year, when GDP growth was recorded at 3.18pc. “The improvement owes to effective macroeconomic management, better fiscal account, growth in large scale manufacturing (LSM) sector, resilience of the agriculture sector to floods of 2025, exchange rate stability and reforms under the IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) Programme,” it stated. For his part, Aurangzeb also pointed out that global growth had reduced to 3.1pc from 3.7pc due to the factors he elaborated on earlier in the press conference. The finance minister said that Pakistan had recorded GDP growth of 3.7pc, which was the highest in the past four years. The finance minister recalled that GDP growth in FY2023 was -0.2pc, 2.6pc in FY2024 and 3.2pc in FY2025. He said it was earlier estimated that GDP growth would exceed 4pc, but it did not happen due to