ISLAMABAD: The Finance Ministry on Sunday released its monthly economic report highlighting the need for a strong economy for currency stability.
According to the report, climatic floods have devastated agriculture across Pakistan, resulting in reduced production of major crops. Sugarcane production has been cut by 8%, rice by 40.6% and cotton by 24.6%, while wheat production has been targeted at 28.37% million tonnes.
The Finance Ministry report further stated that the inflation rate from July to September was 25.1 percent as against 8.6 percent during the same months last year.
According to the report, the budget deficit from July to September was 672 billion rupees, which increased by 45.4% in the first quarter of the fiscal year. However, during the same period in 2021, the budget deficit was 462 billion rupees.
According to the statistics, the profit of the Federal Board of Revenue increased by 17% in the first quarter of the financial year. From July to September, exports increased by 5.5 percent, imports fell by 7.9 percent, current account deficit by $2.2 billion, remittances by 3.6 percent and total investment by 83.7 percent.
Further, the Finance Ministry report also stated that the State Bank’s reserves stood at $8.884 billion as of October 26.
