A video of Aliya Hamza Malik speaking on Pakistan’s economy under PTI’s regime is doing rounds on social media. Ms. Malik is an MNA from PTI who serves as the Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce, Industries and Production, and Board of Investment.
The seven-minute video explains to the parliament and by extension the mass population of Pakistan the economic reforms brought by the incumbent government and the results in the form of economic progress.
اب بات ہوگی حقائق پر: اس حکومت کو جو 19 ارب ڈالر سے زائد کا کرنٹ اکاؤنٹ خسارہ ملا وہ اب سرپلس میں ہے۔ نہ صرف وہ خسارہ ختم ہوا بلکہ ایک ارب ڈالر سرپلس میں گیا۔ مزید معاشی اعداد و شمار جانئے @aliya_hamza سے: pic.twitter.com/kEbwfhTS5o
— PTI (@PTIofficial) May 25, 2021
Her speech was a reply to the opposition’s rhetoric, “government has destroyed the economy”, and “government is unable to run the country”.
GVS has fact-checked every statement made by the minister.
She started her speech by saying, “today there would be no calling each other thieves, and I would only be talking about facts and reality”.
Current Account
She said, “We got the country with a current account deficit of $19.2 billion. Today things have reversed, and the current account has gone from a high deficit to a surplus of $1 billion today.”
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According to the State Bank Data released on Tuesday, the current account balance posted a deficit of $200 million in April compared to a deficit of $510 million a year ago. The deficit was, however, 506 percent higher than the previous month.
The current account showed a surplus of $773 million in 10 months of this fiscal year as against the deficit of $4.657 billion a year ago.
This decrease in the deficit comes as exports rose 61 percent to $2.295 billion in April whereas goods imports increased 58 percent to $4.969 billion.
According to analysts, if the current situation continues, Pakistan will achieve a current account surplus for the current fiscal year 2021, which would be a huge achievement against the forecast of IMF and the State Bank of Pakistan.
Trade Deficit and debt
Then, Ms. Aliya Hamza Malik said, “the trade deficit, which was three times the value of exports, has decreased to a very low percentage.”
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data, the trade deficit has decreased by 6.92 percent in April 2021, month-on-month from March 2021, reaching a value of $3.04 billion, down from $3.27 billion.
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However, Year-on-Year, the trade deficit increased 21.69 percent in the current 10MFY21 compared to 10MFY20 to $23.8 billion.
Then Ms. Malik talked about debt, saying that in three years PTI has taken the loan of $21 billion, and returned $28 billion. She said that in comparison PMLN took loans of value $23 billion in their five-year term.
She added that all the financial analysis firms like Moody’s, Bloomberg, and the World Bank are praising the PTI government for its efforts.
Miss Aliya Malik further added that even though the opposition said we can’t run the government, “Roshan Digital Accounts has received more than $1 billion since its inception in September 2020.”, and the government’s efforts have led to increasing remittances to $27 billion per annum. According to the State Bank of Pakistan data, for the 10MFY21, the remittances have reached $24.3 billion compared to $18.8 billion in the same period of last fiscal year.
She thanked the overseas Pakistanis for their contribution to the economy.
Talking about exports, the parliamentary secretary for commerce said, “while the regional exports are going down, Pakistan’s exports are up by 13.5 percent”.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the Exports for the 10MFY21 are up 13.6 percent compared to the same period last fiscal year. The exports in the current fiscal year have increased to $20.9 billion from $18.4 billion.
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Different sectors of Economy
She then reverted to the agriculture sector saying that the Agriculture sector is becoming an $1100 billion sector of the economy, mentioning that the rural economy of Pakistan is booming. She mentioned Wheat, Sugarcane, Rice, Corn, Potatoes showed growth in the Economy. She quoted figures from the press release of the National Accounts Committee.
She mentioned that the construction industry has been given the biggest package ever, as now, “marginalized people can own homes”. She mentioned that the cement sector grew by 25 percent in the economy, as mentioned in the press release mentioned above.
According to the data released by the National Accounts Committee, the construction sector saw a growth of 16.8 percent in the current fiscal year.
She said, “after 60 years work on dams is being done. Instead of building an orange line of the value of $22 billion, the dams are built of value $200 billion, which would irrigate16-million-acre of land. About 2 million people would be employed, and cheap electricity would be produced.”
Aliya Malik then mentioned in the National Assembly that Ehsaas Program is among the four biggest social welfare programs in the world, and according to her 245 billion has been disbursed and 80 million people have been provided with Health insurance under the Sehat card.
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According to Ehsaas’s website, during the current calendar year 2021, the government of Pakistan has disbursed Rs62.6 billion worth of money among 5 million beneficiaries.
GDP
She mentioned that PSX is the best performing stock exchange in the region from the worst-performing in the past.
The minister mentioned then, the GDP growth projections by the government have beaten those by the IGOs like World Bank and IMF to reach 3.9 percent, as stated by a tweet from the State Bank of Pakistan.
1/3 FY21 growth is expected to rise to 3.94%, as post-Covid recovery underway since last summer has strengthened. The 9-mth current account is also in surplus for the 1st time in 17 yrs and FX reserves at a 4 yr high. This rebound was fueled by a well-calibrated policy response.
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) May 24, 2021
She said that this growth is not the fake, “surkh masala” growth by the preceding regime but is brought by the improvement in the economy.
She mentioned that 9 sectors of the economy are performing well, creating employment opportunities for the people of this country.
She mentioned that the GDP per capita of Pakistan has gone up from $1495 to $1600, with an increase of 13 percent.
This is true, as the per capita income has been calculated at Rs246,414 for 2020-21, compared to Rs215,060 in 2019-20, showing a growth of 14.6pc. The per capita income in dollar terms has jumped by 13.4pc to $1,543 during this fiscal year from $1,361 last year.
Pakistan according to her has improved 10 points in the business optimism index. This is true as Pakistan has jumped 10 points to 60 according to the Global Economy’s business confidence survey. This shines a positive light that Pakistan’s economy is headed in the right direction.
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Aliya Hamza Malik lastly mentioned that South Punjab has been given the secretariat according to demands, 12 new hospitals are under construction in the region, and 12 universities are being made in the region.