ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has revised its economic growth rate for 2020-21 to 5.37% from 3.9%, Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar announced on Thursday.

"The growth in 2020-21 was 5.37%," minister Asad Umar said in a tweet, adding that the National Accounts Committee (NAC), a government body that reviews the economic indicators, had approved the revised estimate of GDP growth.

This is the second time the GDP rate for 2020-21 has been revised, from an initial 2.3% set in the 2020 annual budget then later to 3.9%.

The country's statistics bureau also shifted its economy's baseline, which pushed the figure up further to 5.57%, a statement from the planning ministry said.

The new baseline also increased Pakistan's contraction in 2019-20 to 1%, from the earlier 0.4%. It increased the GDP growth rate for 2017-18 to 6.1% as well.

With the new 2015-16 baseline, it said, Pakistani total GDP has now reached $346.76 billion with a per capita income of $1,666.

For the ongoing fiscal year (2021-22), Pakistan has set a target of 4.8%, but policymakers are hopeful growth will cross 5%.

Umar said the revised number showed the second-highest growth in the last 14 years. The higher growth was mainly due to strong industrial growth between April and June, he said.

With inflation at 12.3%, surging food and energy prices have put Prime Minister Imran Khan under increasing pressure from the middle classes, his main base of support.

His government presented a mid-year budget earlier this month to end tax exemptions on a variety of sectors to raise $1.93 billion for the current fiscal year under IMF conditions.

The IMF has made further budgetary tightening a condition for the revival of a stalled $6 billion funding programme before the next tranche could be approved in a board review set for Jan 28.