Dubai: Pakistan’s economy has come a long way since it started a structural reforms programme three years ago, bringing back stability and discipline to the economy while restoring confidence in the financial system, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Ashraf Wathra told Gulf News in an exclusive interview.
The government and the central bank have come in for praise from both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank for implementing measures that have improved the stability in public finance, balance of payments, sustainable inflation supported by stronger current account balances and a stable banking sector with high level of capitalisation and steadily improving asset quality.
Significant improvement in Pakistan’s external sector remains stable on the back of continued growth in remittances, continued flows from international financial institutions, stable exchange rate, and low oil prices, which, helped contain the current account deficit, helping to keep inflation far below the target.
The overall inflation remained contained to less than 3 per cent during the period July to April in the current financial year as compared to 8.62 per cent in 2014 and 4.53 per cent in 2015. “Our year on year inflation for the current fiscal year ending in June will be 3 per cent. We believe that is a good number considering our original target of 6.5 per cent,” said Wathra.
The country’s foreign exchange reserves are close to $21 billion (Dh77 billion) as of May 9, 2016 of which SBP reserves stood at $16.125 billion and that of scheduled banks at $4.802 billion.
According to a recent World Bank report, workers’ remittances and lower oil prices contributed most to the accumulation in foreign reserves. Remittances of $9.7 billion in the first half of fiscal year 2016 more than compensated for the trade deficit, and oil prices delivered a 9.1 per cent fall in the import bill.
The current lending rate of commercial banks is at about 6 per cent, the lowest in 12 years, in a country where the businesses have borne the brunt of the rate even as high as 18 per cent. Analysts say, in the context of low inflation, the Independent Monetary Policy Committee that sets the interest rates has enough elbow room to keep the rates at the current low or event take it lower.
According to Wathra, the aggregate loan growth numbers of the banking sector are very encouraging at the current lending rates. “With a low inflation that is below our target and considering the fact that an emerging economy like Pakistan can accommodate a slightly higher inflation rate, the lending rates could remain low. But it is not inflation alone, rather the overall economic data that will be considered by the Monetary Policy Committee in making adjustments to the lending rates,” he said.
In the current and the previous quarters, the overall banking sector credit growth surged in excess of Rs300 billion (Dh10.5 billion) with most of that accounting for long term credit. “Clearly the private sector’s long term credit offtake is picking up momentum, indicating growing demand for industrial credit that leads to higher economic growth prospects,” said Wathra.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance expects the country’s GDP to grow in excess of 6 per cent in the next financial year, starting this July. While the country achieved 4.2 per cent growth in 2015, it is expected to be 5 per cent this year.
