ISLAMABAD : 08 Sep 2025 – Federal Minister Planning and Development, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal has claimed that inflation has come down from 10.4 percent to 3.5 percent in the first two months of the new fiscal year.
The government’s effective policies and supervision have significantly reduced inflation. The FBR collected Rs 1661 billion in taxes from July to August, which is 14 percent more than last year. Tax collection increased by 13.5 percent in August 2025. The Pakistan Stock Exchange reached a record high of 154,277 points, market capitalization reached Rs 1.81 trillion.
Speaking at a news conference, he said, Loans of Rs 232.2 billion were given to the agricultural sector in July 2025, an increase of 37%. Loans given to the private sector increased by 13% to Rs 9.6 trillion. Exports from July to August remained at $ 5.11 billion, an increase of 0.7%. Imports increased by 14% to $ 11.1 billion, increasing demand for raw materials and machinery. In the first two months, Rs 150 billion was approved for development projects, Rs 46 billion was released.
Development expenditure increased by 23% compared to last year. Rs 1.13 billion was saved in development projects in July. In August, 32 projects were monitored against the target of 20, the performance was 160%. Through the Udan AI Techathon, the foundation is being laid to make Pakistan a trillion dollar economy by 2035.
Under the Pakistan One National Business Plan, opportunities will be provided to 10,000 young entrepreneurs, 500 projects will be supported. 7.2 million enterprises and 10 million informal businesses were registered in the first economic census.
The 2025 monsoon floods killed 907 people and destroyed 671 kilometers of roads, 239 bridges and farms. The government relocated 2.35 million people to safer places and set up 1,744 relief camps.
Minister shared the details of Pakistan and China cooperation. He said both sides had agreed to form a consortium of bilateral and multilateral partners to finance the $7 billion Mainline-1 (ML-1) railway project, along with a four-year action plan (2025-29) for the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
During Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent visit to China, the two sides had agreed to constitute a consortium of financiers, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), China and Pakistan, for the 1,700-km Karachi-Peshawar railway line.
He said China had assured financing not only for ML-1 but also for the Karakoram Highway. Negotiations with multiple financiers would be concluded within a month. He added that ML-1 and the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway would already have been completed, had it not been for the 2018 political change, alleging that the subsequent PTI government “destroyed the process”.
The minister said Pakistan and China had agreed to develop and implement a four-year action plan to build, between 2025 and 2029, a “China-Pakistan community with a shared future” with stronger political trust, closer trade ties, deeper security cooperation and stronger people-to-people links. Agriculture modernisation and industrial development would be prioritised under CPEC’s second phase, with space for third-party participation.
The next meeting of the Joint Cooperation Council (JCC) of CPEC will be held on Sept 26 in Beijing. Both sides also agreed to advance industrial park development in line with local needs, support enterprise investment in special economic zones (SEZs) — particularly in Karachi and Islamabad — and offer preferential policies and a supportive business environment.
Mr Iqbal said the action plan was a “solid development” of leadership-level meetings aimed at deepening strategic cooperation and advancing the shared vision of an even closer partnership in the new era between two “time-tested, friendly countries.”
The two sides agreed to make full use of the Framework Agreement on Industrial Cooperation to accelerate industrialisation, support exports and encourage Chinese firms to invest in Pakistan, including in the mining sector and building mining industrial parks.
They also agreed to promote cooperation in crop cultivation, animal husbandry, epidemic control for plants and animals, aquaculture, agro-processing, agricultural mechanisation and capacity building in seed technology and drip irrigation.
The plan includes aligning the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with Pakistan’s 5Es Framework, implementing both large-scale landmark projects and “small and beautiful” livelihood projects, while ensuring both high-quality development and robust security.
