IMF expects faster economic recovery in optimistic outlook
Acknowledging Pakistan’s better-than-anticipated current account show last fiscal year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the country’s economy to perform better in the current and next fiscal years compared to other multilateral agencies’ projections despite macroeconomic challenges. The IMF’s World Economic Outlook for October, released on Tuesday, forecasts a growth of 2.5 per cent for the country’s economy in the current year, doubling to 5pc in the next fiscal year. This is a significant jump compared to the 0.5pc contraction witnessed last fiscal year. This meant the Fund also expected quicker economic recovery than it had forecast earlier at 5pc GDP growth rate in the 2026-27 fiscal year. The IMF’s latest growth forecast is lower than the government’s 3.5pc GDP growth target for the current year but well above the recent forecasts from the Washington-based World Bank and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB). The World Bank, which predicted Pakistan’s growth rate at 1.7pc for this fiscal year and 2.4pc in the next, claimed at a recent media event that its estimates were based on the August-September data.