LONDON/LAHORE: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said the objective is to make Pakistan the world’s 24th largest economy and a member of the G20.
Speaking to the media in London, Ishaq Dar said his visit to the United Kingdom had been extremely positive and successful, and that Pakistan wants to take Pakistan–UK relations to new heights. Meetings with British officials, he said, produced agreement on further strengthening bilateral ties.
He said Pakistan had been growing rapidly in 2017, but that the country’s journey of economic progress was halted. Had that journey not been interrupted, he said, Pakistan would today be counted among the world’s major economies.
The Deputy Prime Minister said Pakistan has emerged from the risk of default and that there has been marked improvement in the country’s foreign exchange reserves. The wheel of the economy has begun to turn, he said, and stability has now come to the Pakistani economy.
Ishaq Dar said inflation has fallen from more than 30 per cent to single digits, while the policy rate has come down from 22 per cent to 11.5 per cent. Following stabilisation, he said, the government’s focus is now on economic growth and raising the growth rate.
Economic growth, he said, will improve per capita income and living standards. The government’s target is to bring Pakistan back to its 2017 economic indicators, to make it the world’s 24th largest economy and to secure its inclusion in the G20.
The Deputy Prime Minister added that Pakistan is fully discharging its diplomatic responsibilities at the international level, and that its diplomatic efforts are being appreciated worldwide.
Adviser to the Prime Minister Haroon Akhtar Khan, speaking to the media at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the private sector will also have to come forward if exports are to increase.
He said the government believes in providing every possible facility to the business and trading community, and that political stability is indispensable for economic stability. Political stability, he said, must be maintained if the country is to remain on the path of economic progress.
Haroon Akhtar Khan said Pakistan’s success in the recent conflict has raised the country’s standing in the world and increased the respect accorded to the green passport, adding that the world acknowledges Pakistan’s role in regional peace.
Pakistan is moving forward under the leadership of the Prime Minister and the Field Marshal, he said. He added that companies wishing to invest in the country are lining up, and that the government is taking steps to provide a conducive environment for investors and the business class.
The target deserves to be examined rather than repeated. Pakistan currently sits somewhere in the mid-40s by nominal GDP, depending on the year and the source. Moving into the top 24 in nominal dollar terms would require either a very long period of high real growth combined with a stable exchange rate, or a substantial rupee appreciation — and the two do not usually arrive together.
The stabilisation figures cited are real and should be acknowledged. Disinflation from above 30 per cent to single digits and a policy rate down to 11.5 per cent represent a genuine macroeconomic turn. But stabilisation and growth are different problems, and Pakistan has historically converted the first into the second only briefly before running into the same constraint: import-led growth widens the current account deficit, reserves fall, and the cycle restarts.
That is exactly why Haroon Akhtar Khan’s point about exports is the more consequential of the two statements, even though it made the smaller headline. Breaking the boom-bust cycle requires export growth faster than import growth, sustained over years. Pakistan’s export base remains narrow, textile-dominated and highly exposed to energy costs. Asking the private sector to “come forward” is fair; the private sector’s answer has consistently been that it cannot compete internationally while paying among the region’s highest industrial power tariffs.
The G20 aspiration, meanwhile, is not a purely economic question. Membership is a matter of political consensus among existing members, not a ranking threshold — several economies larger than the smallest G20 members are not in it.
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