December 28, 2006	Thursday	Zilhaj 06, 1427

KARACHI, Dec 27: The country’s economic growth is likely to receive a fillip from higher-than-expected output of major crops in the current fiscal year, a government official said on Wednesday.

Increased crops of sugar, rice, wheat and cotton will boost growth of the agriculture sector, the largest contributor to gross domestic product (GDP).

“The agriculture sector this year is likely to grow by 4.2 per cent,” said Ashfaque Hasan Khan, adviser to the finance ministry.

The farm sector grew at a dismal rate of 2.4 per cent during the last fiscal year due to severe irrigation water shortages.

“The reversal was mostly on account of better availability of irrigation water that persisted both in the Kharif and Rabi crop seasons,” Khan said.

Cotton production in the year ending in June 2007 is expected to be 12.5 million to 12.8 million bales. Cotton and textiles account for about 60 per cent of the country’s exports.

The cotton crop in the last fiscal year was 12.4 million bales.

Khan said industry would also benefit from a healthy cotton crop.

Pakistan, the world’s fourth-largest cotton producer, expects domestic consumption of 15 million bales in the season that started in July, in line with recent years.

The sugarcane crop exceeded forecasts by 18 per cent, at 52 million tons. The rice crop was 2 per cent more than forecast, at 5.6 million tons.

Officials said the wheat crop might reach 23 million tons, compared with a target of 21.5 million tons.—Reuters