ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: The National Economic Council (NEC) was informed on Tuesday that poverty and unemployment in the country had declined by 6.7 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively, in 2004-05.

A meeting of the council held here with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in the chair was also informed that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was expected to range between 6.5 and 7 per cent this year.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Commission’s Deputy Chairman Akram Shaikh said the NEC noted that while the current sugar crisis had been caused by low production, the country was likely to face a wheat crisis owing to increased production which would bring down its prices.

“The ongoing sugar crisis is due to low production. But the wheat crisis would be totally different. This would be caused by increased production that is feared to bring down prices considerably,” he said.

Referring to unemployment, he said 5.5 million jobs had been created over the past two years, reducing joblessness from 7.7 per cent in 2003-04 to 6.8 per cent.

All chief ministers, the AJK president, NWFP governor and several ministers participated in the meeting.

The NEC called a meeting of chief ministers to prepare a strategy for the timely completion of over 700 projects that are currently under implementation across the country.

The meeting was informed that poverty had declined by 6.7 per cent, based on calorie intake. The GDP growth is expected to be between 6.5 and 7 per cent this year.

Answering a question, Mr Shaikh said these were provisional figures and a committee would asses the final growth as the Asian Development Bank had pointed out contradictions in the figures issued by the State Bank and the Federal Bureau of Statistics.

Earlier, addressing the meeting earlier, the prime minister quoted findings of the Pakistan Social Living Standards Measurement Survey 2004-05 and said that overall poverty in the country had declined from 32.1 per cent in 2001 to 25.4 per cent in 2005.

Urban poverty came down from 22.7 per cent in 2001 to 17.2 per cent in 2005 and rural poverty from 39 per cent in 2001 to 31.8 per cent in 2005.

“Economic growth, driven by manufacturing and services, is expected to maintain its momentum despite the tragic loss of life in the earthquake-hit areas and surging of international oil prices to $70 per barrel,” he observed.

Results of the mid-term economic review showed that economy had the strength to absorb major shocks and maintain the growth momentum. The indicators had also reinforced the government’s belief that the country was on the path of progress and prosperity, Mr Aziz noted.

The Economic Vision 2030, he said, would focus on energy, water and food security, upgradation of infrastructure, better logistics, end-to-end supply chains and new technology to improve productivity and sustain growth as well as competitiveness.

The government would try to benefit from the opportunities that might come through Central Asia or western China, he said.

“We were never destined to remain poor, weak, and marginalised. We are confident that with strong and unwavering leadership, staying on course, passion, hard work, consistency, sincerity, and focused direction and approach, our nation has the ability and determination to achieve its destiny to be a progressive, developed, moderate Islamic state,” he said.