Pakistan govt sets 4.8% GDP growth target for next financial year

Pakistan's government has set a 4.8 per cent GDP growth target for the financial year starting on July 1 as the country recovers from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, Plann­ing Minist­er Asad Umar said on Friday.

 

For the year ending next month, Pakistan has said it is on course to achieve 3.94 per cent GDP — more than double the IMF's view and roughly triple the World Bank's projection. "This growth is an indicator that the revival that has started is continuing its momentum," Umar told a news conference in Islamabad.

 

The government has met with scepticism over its forecast for the current financial year, which it has raised from a previous 3 per cent and an original target of 2.1 per cent set in the last budget. The IMF is estimating GDP growth for 2020/21 at 1.5 per cent, while the World Bank puts the expected expansion at 1.3 per cent. Pakistan has also revised down its GDP data for the financial year that ended last June to show a contraction of 0.47 per cent from one of 0.38 per cent.

 

The government says its policies to handle the economy during the pandemic have worked well as the country opted for a complete lockdown for a very short period of time.