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Govt to review economic indicators on 16th

ISLAMABAD: The government will review key economic indicators in a meeting on February 16 to identify means of combating imminent recession, official sources said on Wednesday.

Sources said the meeting will be attended by the Secretary of Planning and Development Division, and Secretaries for Commerce, Finance, Industries and Production, Agriculture and Economic Adviser and Chairman CBR.

Sources said the meeting would review the economic situation during July-December 1999-2000, and would also discuss availability of agricultural inputs, including disbursement of agriculture credit for Kharif and Rabi crops in comparison with similar period of the previous year.

The meeting would also review industrial growth during July-December 1999-2000 with the previous year.

Sources said the meeting would also review foreign trade during the same period by regions and by commodity.

Analysis of tax collection and prospects of realisation of targets for the current year would be presented by CBR Chairman Riaz Naqvi.

The Finance Secretary will present an analysis of revenue, expenditure and overall budgetary deficit with views on meeting budgetary targets for the year.

The participants will also discuss monitoring of circular debt of major public sector corporations. The Chief Economist of Planning Commission will submit papers on performance and reivew of production sectors during the first half of the fiscal, implementation status and impact assessment of the economic revival programme and other measures for recovery in the large scale manufacturing sectors and competitive positions of Pakistan in the world market. The meeting will also entertain suggestions for accelerating growth in industrial sector and improving the competitive position of Pakistan in the world market.

Officials said the participants are also expected to discuss comparative analysis of various trends during July-December 1999-2000 in comparison to the correspondent period of last year, in respect of monetary expansion with causative factors and its impact on economic recovery programme, credit utilisation by sectors, recovery of bad debts, interest rates and liquidity position of banks and foreign exchange reserves. Fortuna