Pakistan economy can still hit targets: FinMin

Pakistan's economy, which has been motoring along with growth of around 7 percent since 2002, ran into political crisis last year, culminating in last month's assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and raising doubts over continued growth.

On Saturday, the central bank cut its economic growth forecast for 2007/08 (July-June) to 6.6-7.0 percent, below the government's 7.2 percent target, citing weakness in the farm sector, a strong contributor to growth in previous years.

But Finance Minister Salman Shah, speaking to Dawn TV, said the economy remained resilient, noting that foreign reserves and the stock market had continued to hold up throughout the turmoil.

"There is a basic buoyancy in the economy...," Shah said.

"I think that we should be able to meet most of our targets, even though the inflation target would be very difficult to meet because of food and energy prices. On the growth side, we should come very close," he said.