Yet another setback for the fragile Pakistani economy
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DUBAI - Pakistan's fragile economy faces yet another setback as the International Monetary Fund has further lowered the growth for FY 2018-19.
The International Monetary Fund on Monday lowered its 2019 economic growth forecast for Pakistan by 0.3 percentage points to 2.4 percent.
“Growth in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan region is expected to remain subdued at 2.4 percent in 2019 before recovering to about 3 percent in 2020,” the global lender said in its World Economic Outlook update for January.
“Multiple factors weigh on the region’s outlook, including weak oil output growth, which offsets an expected pickup in non-oil activity (Saudi Arabia); tightening financing conditions (Pakistan); US sanctions (Iran); and, across several economies, geopolitical tensions.”
The IMF lowered its projection for Saudi Arabia´s gross domestic product growth this year to 1.8 percent, down from 2.4 percent in its October report. However, it raised its forecast for next year by 0.2 percentage points, to 2.1 percent..
