The Role of Financial Technology in Promoting Financial Inclusion and Stimulating Pakistan's Economic Growth

This study explores the relationship between financial technology (FinTech), financial inclusion, and economic growth in Pakistan, with a focus on GDP, ICTs, digital literacy, and education. It employs Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach on quarterly data for the period 1996 to 2022. The findings reveal that both in the short and long run, financial technology enhance the country's economic growth, while digital illiteracy hampers it. Increased education expenditures prove beneficial for boosting economic growth in both time frames. Conversely, insufficient investment in information and communication technologies negatively affects economic growth in the short run, and a low uptake of regulatory quality has a detrimental impact in the long run. These results offer valuable policy implications for fostering equitable growth and sustainable development in Pakistan, emphasizing the need for a more inclusive adoption and utilization of financial technology.