Advisor to the Federal Minister for Finance, Khurram Schehzad, on Monday criticised a recent BBC Urdu article for portraying what he called a \u201cgloomy and outdated\u201d picture of Pakistan\u2019s economy, asserting that actual data reflected stabilisation, reform momentum and renewed global confidence.
\nCommenting on the BBC Urdu report in a post on X, he said the narrative of economic collapse was detached from facts, as Pakistan had achieved improved macroeconomic indicators, controlled inflation, strengthened external buffers, and a revival of exports and investment.
\nHe said GDP growth strengthened to 3 percent in FY25 from 2.5 percent in FY24 and was projected between 3.6 and 4 percent in FY26, while per capita income rose 10 percent to $1,830 after years of stagnation. Inflation dropped sharply to 4.5 percent \u2014 a nine-year low \u2014 and the policy rate was reduced from 22 percent to 11 percent, helping affordability and investment.
\nHighlighting gains on the external and fiscal fronts, he said Pakistan recorded a $2.1 billion current account surplus in FY25 \u2014 the first in 14 years \u2014 while SBP reserves increased 55 percent year-on-year to $14.5 billion. The primary surplus reached a historic 2.4 percent of GDP, and the overall fiscal deficit fell to a nine-year low alongside debt-to-GDP declining below 70 percent. He said two successful IMF reviews, along with support from the World Bank, ADB and IFC, validated the policy direction.<\/p>\n
Schehzad said deep reforms were underway in taxation, energy, state-owned enterprises and privatisation, pensions and regulatory oversight, while digital, AI and industrial policies were shifting the economy toward productivity-led, export-driven growth.
\nExports continued to grow, with goods up 7 percent and services up 15 percent in FY25, supported by an 18 percent increase in IT and tech exports. Large-scale manufacturing posted 9 percent growth in July\u2013September 2025 \u2014 the highest in more than three years \u2014 and the Pakistan Stock Exchange rose 60 percent in FY25 as the investor base crossed one million.
\nHe noted that the ICT sector achieved record highs, with tech exports reaching $1.06 billion in the first quarter of FY26 \u2014 a 20.5 percent increase \u2014 and $366 million recorded in September alone, making ICT the leading services export sector.
\nHe said Pakistan had regained global investor interest, reflected in recent rating upgrades by Fitch, S&P and Moody\u2019s and new commitments from Saudi Arabia, China under CPEC Phase-II, the UAE in banking and energy, and the United States in technology and minerals.
\nSchehzad said lower industrial energy tariffs, cheaper credit, digitized taxation and a governance model led by private-sector expertise were enhancing competitiveness and creating jobs.
\nHe concluded that Pakistan\u2019s current economic trajectory represented a shift from \u201cstability to reform to competitiveness and growth\u201d, adding that the BBC Urdu article\u2019s claims of a downward spiral ignored documented progress and the ongoing economic turnaround.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Advisor to the Federal Minister for Finance, Khurram Schehzad, on Monday criticised a recent BBC Urdu article for portraying what he called a \u201cgloomy and outdated\u201d picture of Pakistan\u2019s economy, asserting that actual data reflected stabilisation, reform momentum and renewed global confidence. Commenting on the BBC Urdu report in a post on X, he said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":88729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88730,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88719\/revisions\/88730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}