ISLAMABAD: *Pakistan’s economy face the worst blow from the coronaviruspandemic outbreak.*
Pakistan’s fiscal deficit will surge to 9pc in the ongoing fiscal year, thecountry’s de facto finance minister said, as its economy reels from thefallout of the coronavirus crisis.
Pakistan, which has reported 26,435 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 599deaths, had announced lifting countrywide lockdown from Saturday in a bidto restart economic activity.
Fear of an economic meltdown is said to be the main reason behind endingthe shutdown at a time when the country’s curve, or rate of infections, isedging up sharply.
“The expectation of the deficit we had prior to the coronavirus was 7.6pc.Now, after corona, we think the deficit will touch 8pc plus and that itmight be 9pc,” said Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Adviser to Prime Minister onFinance and Revenue, who is effectively the country’s finance minister.
In an interview with Reuters at his office in Islamabad, Shaikh said thecoronavirus-hit South Asian economy will also miss a tax revenue targetthat had recently been downwardly-revised and agreed to with the IMF, whichgave the country a three-year, $6 billion bailout last year.
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Pakistan is set to collect Rs3.9 trillion ($24.54 billion) in taxes, 19pcbelow the downwardly revised target of Rs4.8 trillion ($30.20 billion), hesaid.
The International Monetary Fund also gave Pakistan a $1.386 billion rapidfinancing package last month to tackle balance-of-payment problems amideconomic fallout from the virus.
The country’s economy is now projected to contract 1pc to 1.5pc in theongoing fiscal year, Shaikh added, officially corroborating earlier IMFestimates of the extent of the effect of the pandemic on Pakistan’s economy.
