ISLAMABAD  -  The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has forecast Pakistan’s growth rate at 269.6 billion dollars by 2035 with an annual add up of 3.4 percent.
In its annual report regarding energy requirements of Asia and the Pacific‚ the population of the country is expected to increase at a relatively fast pace of 1.4 percent‚ reaching up to 245.9 million in 2035.
During this period‚ final energy demand of Pakistan is projected to increase at an annual rate of 2.1 percent through 2035‚ slower than the projected GDP growth rate of 3.4 percent during the same period.
With this growth rate‚ the final energy demand will reach 117.6 million tons oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 2035. The report said transport and industry energy demand will increase at respective rates of 3.4 percent and 3.2 percent per year over the outlook period.
In the outlook period‚ Pakistan reliance on natural gas will maintain the largest share of 43.8 percent followed by oil at 23 percent and 18 percent from non-commercial biomass and renewable energy sources.
Use of coal will also increase as a result of start-up of the Thar coalfield to feed the needs for both the power and industry sectors.The share of hydro is also expected to increase up to 5.2 percent till 2035‚ which will increase the annual capacity to 25.1 Gigawatts. The capacity from nuclear energy resources is projected at 1.3 GW in this period.