Pakistan’s Economic Growth Trails Behind Regional Peers
Pakistan’s Economic Growth Trails Behind Regional Peers
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s export performance is falling short compared to neighboring nations such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Egypt, and India as the nation’s economy struggles to keep pace with its regional peers, as reported by ARY News.
Official documents indicate that Pakistan’s exports represent only 10 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in contrast to up to 27 percent in neighboring countries.
Over the last decade, the nation’s export sector has declined, dropping its GDP share from 13 percent in 2010 to 10 percent in 2024.
According to the documents, India’s exports comprise 22 percent of its GDP, while Bangladesh’s exports account for 13 percent. Pakistan’s education and healthcare spending is also lower than that of other regional nations. The country allocates merely 0.8 percent of its GDP towards healthcare services, compared to 1.1 percent in India and 1.9 percent in Sri Lanka.
Similarly, Pakistan dedicates only 1.9 percent of its GDP to education, whereas India invests 4.1 percent in this sector.
Pakistan’s economic growth has been sluggish, with an average annual growth rate of 3.9 percent over the past ten years. As of 2023, Pakistan’s GDP per capita is also lower than that of its regional counterparts, at $1,463, compared to $1,654 in India.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported a 10.52 percent rise in exports during the first half of the current fiscal year relative to the same months the previous year.
According to PBS data, exports from July to December (2024-25) reached $16.561 billion, up from $14.985 billion in July to December (2023-24).
Conversely, imports into the country increased by 6.11 percent, from $26.137 million last year to $27.733 million during the first six months of the current year.
As a result, the trade deficit for the period was recorded at $11.172 billion, slightly up from the deficit of $11.152 billion last year, marking an increase of 0.18 percent. Additionally, on a year-on-year basis, exports in December 2024 rose by 0.67 percent to $2.841 billion, up from $2.822 billion in December 2023.
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