ISLAMABAD: Over 2 crore Pakistanis may fall below poverty line aftercoronavirus pandemic economic losses.
The government has submitted a detailed report on the macroeconomic lossesexpected to be incurred as a result of the coronavirus crisis, assessingthat the GDP growth will go down by 1.3%, push 10% of population below thepoverty line and cause three million in jobs losses in the coming months, *TheNews* reported on Saturday.
The report, submitted before the National Coordination Committee, indicatesthat different ministries and divisions within the government are going toface a Rs638 billion reduction in their revenues during the ongoing fourthquarter (April-June).
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will face a revenue loss of Rs800billion by June 2020, the report stated.
The fiscal deficit, according to the official report, could climb up to9.6% of GDP for the current fiscal year in the post-COVID-19 scenario,against the official projection of 7.4% in the pre-COVID-19 situation.
Read Top Stories
The report, 30 pages in length, was submitted before the NCC to help thetop civilian and military leadership in reviewing the economic situation ofPakistan.
The official report on economic losses made another startling disclosurewhen it stated that “assuming that no economic activity takes place inPakistan and there is a complete lockdown, it would take 1.66 weeks forPakistan’s growth to drop to nil (zero).”
The IMF and World Bank had already projected shrinking of GDP growth andassessed real growth falling into negative 1.5% for the current fiscal yearin Pakistan.
