Ahsan Iqbal reports encouraging export, remittance growth in first quarter

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal said on Thursday that Pakistan's exports and workers' remittances posted "encouraging growth" in the first quarter of the current fiscal year despite disruption in global markets, supply chains and logistics.

The statement, carried by the Associated Press of Pakistan, ran to a single paragraph and contained no figures. It did not give the value of exports or of remittances received during the quarter, the rate of growth, or a comparison with the same three months of the previous year. It also did not say where the minister spoke, to whom, or whether his assessment rested on his own ministry's data or on numbers compiled by another department.

Pakistan's fiscal year runs from 1 July to 30 June, which places the first quarter in July, August and September. Exports and remittances are watched closely by markets and policymakers as sources of foreign exchange, and their monthly movements are reported separately by official bodies.

Because no figures were released, the minister's assessment could not be checked against the State Bank of Pakistan's monthly remittance data or the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics' monthly trade numbers, both of which are published on their own schedules.

The Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, which Iqbal heads, oversees the Planning Commission and prepares the government's annual and medium-term development plans. The statement did not tie Thursday's remarks to any particular plan, target or programme, and did not say what share of the quarter's foreign exchange earnings came from exports as against remittances.

The APP report also did not indicate whether the government intends to publish detailed first-quarter figures, or when. No other official statement on first-quarter export and remittance performance accompanied the minister's remarks in the material available.

Iqbal's comment was framed around external conditions rather than domestic performance, pointing to disruption in global markets, supply chains and logistics as the backdrop against which, he said, both flows still grew. The statement did not identify which markets or which supply chains were affected, or how the disruption had touched Pakistan's own shipments.

Official data on the first quarter is the standard measure against which such statements are tested, and until it is issued the scale of the growth the minister described remains unquantified in public.