ISLAMABAD – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed that thecoronavirus outbreak may have an adverse effect on the Pakistani economyduring its meeting with the government officials on Monday.
According to a media report, the IMF team, visiting Pakistan to holdpolicy-level talks, was concerned that badly affected the Chinese economywill also have a spillover effect and may slow down Islamabad’s GDP growth.
Pakistani authorities, however, rejected any negative impact on its economyin totality and argued that there would be no negative impact, which meansthe GDP growth target of 3.3 per cent and inflation hovering around 11 to12 per cent must remain intact.
The new coronavirus that emerged in central China at the end of last yearhas killed more than 1,000 people and spread around the world. The latestfigures from China show there are more than 42,600 people infected in thecountry.
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Talks between Pakistan and the IMF began last Monday for the disbursementof the third tranche under the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF)finalised in May last year.
