The National Economic Council has unanimously approved six-agenda items, including national development budget worth 4224 billion rupees for the next fiscal year.

The approval was granted at the NEC meeting held in Islamabad today [Wednesday] with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the chair and with all the four provincial chief ministers of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan in the presence. It was told that 1000 billion rupees will be earmarked for the federal and 2869 billion rupees for the provincial development projects.

The forum also approved macroeconomic framework and targets for the next fiscal year. The council directed relevant ministries, provinces, and government institutions to work in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning to achieve the targets set in the proposed annual plan for 2025-2026. These development projects will prioritize health, education, infrastructure, the water sector, and housing.

The NEC gave approval to the 13th five-year development plan and the Uraan Pakistan Framework.

A third-party monitoring report on the annual National Development Program was presented, and the meeting decided that future project planning should incorporate the recommendations of this report.

The NEC also approved a GDP growth rate of 2.7 percent for the outgoing fiscal year and a projected growth rate of 4.2 percent for the next financial year.

During the meeting, revised indicators regarding the performance of the economy in outgoing fiscal year 2024-25 were presented.

The meeting was informed that 3483 billion rupees are being spent on the annual national development, of which 1100 billion rupees is share of the federation and 2383 billion rupees is the share of provinces.  

The meeting was told that remittances increased by 30.9 percent from July 2024 to April 2025 and the current account balance remained positive for the first time.

The fiscal deficit in the year 2024-25 further decreased to 2.6 percent of the GDP, while the primary balance remained 3 percent of the GDP after increase.          

The policy rate gradually decreased to 11 percent due to government policies, while loans given for private sector development increased to 681 billion from July 2024 to May 2025.

The volume of GDP in 2024-25 will be 114 trillion rupees.

The Prime Minister thanked the participants of the meeting for the unanimous approval of all agenda points of the National Economic Council meeting, and said that such consensus on national issues is a guarantee of Pakistan's bright future.             

Addressing the meeting, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif said people of Pakistan stand completely united against India to protect the integrity of the country.

He said India's threats to deprive Pakistan of water resources are unacceptable, and we will defeat India on this front also, just as we did in the Marka e Haq. Shehbaz Sharif said a comprehensive strategy will be devised in consultation with all provincial Chief Ministers, in the context of Indian aggression. He said joint efforts of the federation and provinces have paid off, as the country is back on path of economic stability.

The Prime Minister said agricultural sector plays a central role in increasing foreign exchange and growth rate, therefore a strategy is being formulated for improving agricultural production.