Looking Beyond the Traditional Agri Credit

Byline: SHAMSUL GHANI Pakistan is assumed to be a predominantly agricultural economy. The economists and the policy makers have been endeavoring hard with little planning to shift the focus from an agro-based economy to an industrial economy. They have succeeded in increasing the share of industrial sector to the GDP from 12 to 19 per cent during the last 52 years - the period for which economic record is available. They have also succeeded in bringing down the share of agriculture sector from 46 percent to 21 percent during the same period. This is surprising on many accounts. The decrease in one sector should have been matched by the increase in the other allowing for import substitution and lesser dependence on export of food items. The gap created by the reduction in agriculture output has been filled by the services sector. Services sector's 53 percent contribution to GDP owes much to the banking and telecom sectors.