ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Pakistan’s real GDP growth and inflation at 2.4 percent and 13 percent respectively for the current fiscal year 2019-20.
In its report — “World Economic Outlook (WEO) Global Manufacturing Downturn, Rising Trade Barriers”— released on Tuesday, the global lender has also projected a rise in unemployment ratio for Pakistan —from 6.1 percent in 2019 to 6.2 percent in 2020.
The report also projects that the current account balance would be at negative 2.6 percent for 2020 compared to negative 4.6 percent for 2019.
On current account deficit (CAD), the IMF report shows that Pakistan’s CAD stood at 6.3 percent of GDP in FY-2018 that had dropped to 4.6 percent of GDP in last financial year 2019. Now the IMF has projected that the country’s CAD would be standing at 2.6 percent of GDP for the current fiscal year 2020. The CAD is projected to further slash down by FY2024 and would be standing at 1.6 percent of GDP.
