Pakistani economy facing high inflation and stagnant growth says IMF
Pakistani economy to grow at 1% while inflation could touch 10% this year
After the
World Bank, now IMF has come up with a bleak prediction about Pakistani
economic growth. According to IMF prediction Pakistani economy will grow only
1% in the current financial year. The 1% growth rate is less than half of the
official target of 2.1% and broadly in line with the projections made by the
World Bank.
The inflation
may cross above 10% and rate of unemployment will further jump by the end of
this fiscal year, revealed the World Economic Outlook (WEO) report that the
International Monetary Fund released yesterday.
The WEO
noted that inflation in Pakistan could be 10.2% on an annualised basis, which
by 2025 is expected to remain around 8.6% and the unemployment rate, which till
this fiscal year was 4.5% may further jump to 5.1%. The IMF projected over
13.3% increase in unemployment in Pakistan within a year.
The pace of
inflation is skyrocketing at a time when the economic activity, both in the
formal as well as informal sectors, is slowing down, which has made it
difficult for the people to cope with the situation. There is double-digit food
inflation in Pakistan due to shortage of essential food items.
The IMF
report said that remittance flows contracted sharply during the early lockdown
period but showed signs of recovery.
“The risk of
a decline in payments and transfers from migrant workers back to their home
countries is very significant, particularly for such countries as Bangladesh,
Egypt, Guatemala, Pakistan, the Philippines,” according to the report.
R K Bhatti
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