LAHORE: Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said here on Sunday that target for gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the ongoing financial year was around 5.5 per cent and it would be raised to 7 per cent during the 2018-19 fiscal.

He was addressing the closing ceremony of Colours of Indus 2017 Programme at the Governor’s House.

Governor Rafique Rajwana and Ali Jamil from Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO) also addressed the ceremony.

Dar said the country had successfully tapped international capital market four times since 2014 and each time received overwhelming response.

He said that the country was back on the road to macro-economic stability to achieve higher, sustainable and inclusive growth.

He said that for the first time it completed all 12 reform steps of EFF (Extended Fund Facility) Programme of the IMF as the growth momentum remained above 4 per cent for the third year in a row, and the GDP growth was registered 4.71 per cent in FY 2016, the highest in eight years.

He said that inflation had been brought down to less than 3 per cent in 2016, the lowest in decades, and fiscal deficit reduced from 8.2 to 4.6 per cent, while on the revenue side, tax collection increased by 60 per cent over last three years and foreign exchange reserves were sufficient for over five months of import cover.

Published in Dawn February 13th, 2017