By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb ordered an urgent assessment of the nation’s stocks of wheat, rice, and sugar on Friday, as catastrophic floods in the nation’s agricultural heartland threaten to deepen a food crisis and fuel inflation in the world’s eighth-largest wheat producer.
Chairing the inaugural meeting of the Steering Committee on Inflationary Trends, Aurangzeb directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to coordinate with provincial governments to evaluate stocks of essential commodities, according to a government statement.
The move aims to stabilize prices after floods in Punjab province destroyed 30% of the country’s wheat reserves and ravaged key crops. “We will extend maximum possible support to mitigate the impact of inflation on poor households and flood-hit communities,” Aurangzeb said, committing the Finance Division to robust action.
The committee, formed last week on the prime minister’s directive, reviewed domestic and international factors driving inflation, with a focus on the toll of rising food costs on vulnerable populations. It emphasized continuous monitoring of commodity prices, supply chains, and crop conditions to enable rapid policy interventions.
Attendees included senior officials from the Finance, Power, Petroleum, and Planning ministries, alongside representatives from the State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute. The panel will reconvene soon to finalize administrative steps to ensure price stability and steady supplies.
The floods, which began in late August in Punjab, have killed 46 people, affected 3.9 million, and displaced 1.8 million, while devastating crops like rice, maize, cotton, sugarcane, and vegetables. Ahmad Jawad, chief organizer of the Pakistan Business Forum, said the deluges wiped out critical wheat storage facilities. “Our assessment (is that) 30% of wheat stock is gone,” Jawad said. “Floods have severely affected wheat stocks in central and south Punjab.”
Pakistan produced 31.4 million tons of wheat last year, accounting for 4% of global output, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This year’s harvest was forecast at 28.9 million tons, down 8% from 2024, but estimates now point to 27.5 million to 28 million tons against annual domestic consumption of 33.6 million tons.
The crisis is clouding Pakistan’s economic outlook. Senior economists now project GDP growth for fiscal 2025-26 could slump to between zero and 1%, well below the International Monetary Fund’s 3.6% forecast and the government’s 4.2% target. “In 2022-23, growth was negligible due to floods. A similar situation is unfolding now, with agriculture set to take the biggest hit,” said economist and former finance minister Dr. Hafeez Pasha. The 2022 floods inflicted $30 billion in losses, equivalent to 7-8% of GDP, and Pasha warned that “the economy is at risk of being dragged down to zero growth” without a strong recovery in other sectors.
Pasha also pointed to fiscal strains, with federal and provincial budgets forced to redirect significant resources to rehabilitation. “The government must immediately reframe priorities, putting flood-hit families and the agricultural sector at the centre of policy,” he said, lamenting Pakistan’s lack of a proactive strategy to counter recurring floods that strike every three to four years.
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