ISLAMABAD - Federal Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh Thursday pinpointed security situation, heavy floods and soaring oil prices as major factors that inhabited the achievement of key economic targets during the outgoing financial year 2011-2012.However, terming it the highest in the past three years, he said the government achieved 3.7 per cent growth rate during the outgoing fiscal year as compared to 3 per cent of the last year.But the government missed the GDP growth target of 4.2 per cent. “It has been constantly growing, but not as fast as we wanted. Our medium-term goal is to take it up to 5-6 per cent”, said the minister said at the launching ceremony of Pakistan Economic Survey 2011-2012. The survey shows that the country has missed the major economic targets including GDP, agriculture, services and industrial sectors. The foreign investment, foreign reserves and value of rupee decreased during the outgoing fiscal year.The finance minister admitted in the media briefing that country’s economic situation was not as satisfactory; however, he said that achieving 3.7 per cent GDP growth, despite domestic and international challenges, was a big achievement. In spite of missing all major economic targets, he barefacedly claimed that Pakistan’s economy has performed well during the outgoing fiscal year. The minister noted that unstable security situation in the region has made international investors reluctant to invest in Pakistan. The monsoon last year also hindered growth as it destroyed crops in Sindh and Balochistan and caused a loss of $3 billion apart from affecting 9.6 million people, he added.Dr Shaikh claimed that inflation has been reduced due to government steps. Consumer Price Indicator (CPI) based inflation has been recorded at 10.8 per cent in 2011-2012 as against 13.8 per cent of the last fiscal year, he said. However, he was benevolent enough to recognise the need for doing more to reduce it further. He said that government did not want to increase oil prices in the country; however, it had to increase it due to soaring prices in international market.Terming the outgoing fiscal year a historic one in terms of revenue collection, the minister said that government has collected Rs1,450 billion in taxes in July-April 2011-2012, which is 25 per cent higher than the collection of Rs1,250 billion in the last year. The tax-to-GDP ratio would go beyond 10 per cent during the outgoing fiscal year, he added.According to the key points of the Economic Survey of Pakistan, the real GDP growth has been estimated at 3.7 per cent against the budgetary target of 4.2 per cent. Agricultural sector registered the growth of 3.13 per cent against the target of 3.4 per cent, services sector recorded a growth of four per cent as compare to the target of five per cent. The Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector registered growth of 1.8 per cent against the target of two per cent.The Economic Survey further revealed that fiscal/budget deficit was recorded at five per cent of the GDP during first nine months (July-March) of the fiscal year 2011-2012 as compare to the revised target of 4.7 per cent. The fiscal deficit for the entire financial year 2011-2012 could go beyond six per cent of the GDP as figures of three months (April-June) were not incorporated in the survey.The per capita real income grew at 2.33 percent in 2011-12 as compared to 1.33 percent growth in last year. In terms of dollar, it increased from $1258 to $1372 in 2011-12. Total investment declined from 13.1 percent of GDP to 12.5 percent of GDP in 2011-12 as compared to last year. Fixed investment declined to 10.9 percent of GDP in 2011-12 from 11.5 percent of GDP as compared to last year. Private investment witnessed a contraction of 7.9 percent of GDP in 2011-12 as compared to 8.6 percent of GDP last year.Public investment as a percent of GDP increased to 3.0 percent in 2011-12 against the 2.9 percent last year. National Savings are 10.7 percent of GDP in 2011-12 as compared to 13.2 percent in 2010-11. Foreign Direct Investment in Pakistan stood at $ 666.8 million during July-April 2011-12 as against $ 1292.9 million last year.Workers’ Remittances increased to $10,876.99 million in July-April of 2011-12, as against $9,046.61 million in the comparable period of last year, posting a positive growth of 20.23 percent. In absolute terms, exports increased from $20460 million in July-April 2010-11 to $20474 million in the period thereby witnessing a growth of 0.1 percent during the first ten months (July-April) of the fiscal year 2011-12.Imports during the first ten months (July-April) of the fiscal year 2011-12 increased by 14.5 percent compared with the same period of last year, reaching to $33.15 billion.Current Account Deficit stood to $3394 million in July-April 2011-12. Services account deficit reached to $2,347 million during July-April 2011-12 as compared to $1,225 million during the same period last year.Financial Account surplus during July-April 2011-12 stood at $1200 million as compared to $690 million in corresponding period last year. Exchange rate of Pak Rupee depreciated by 3.4 percent during July-April 2011-12. Foreign Exchange Reserves stood at $16.5 billion at the end of April, 2012. Of which, reserves held with the State Bank of Pakistan stood at $12.04 billion and by banks $4.45 billion.