The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised Pakistan’s GDP growth rate forecast upward to 1.5 per cent for the current fiscal year (FY21) in its World Economic Outlook update for January 2021.
According to a report compiled by a local media outlet, the international financial institution, in its latest outlook said that although recent vaccine approvals have raised hopes of a turnaround in the pandemic later this year, renewed waves and new variants of the virus pose concerns for the outlook.
It may be noted here that the global economy is projected to grow 5.5pc in 2021 and 4.2pc in 2022 amid uncertainty created by the pandemic.
The 2021 forecast is revised up 0.3 percentage points relative to the previous forecast, reflecting expectations of a vaccine-powered strengthening of activity later in the year and additional policy support in a few large economies. The projected growth recovery this year follows a severe collapse in 2020 that has had acute adverse impacts on women, youth, the poor, the informally employed, and those who work in contact-intensive sectors.
The global growth contraction for 2020 is estimated at -3.5pc, 0.9 percentage points higher than projected in the previous forecast, reflecting stronger-than-expected momentum in H2CY20.
Now that’s a good news.