The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has downgraded Pakistan’s growth estimate for fiscal year 2024 to two per cent, according to a report issued on Tuesday.
The Fund’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) for January said the estimate was downgraded by 0.5pc from 2.5pc in October’s outlook.
The IMF’s latest growth forecast is lower than the government’s 3.5pc GDP growth target for the current year
Meanwhile, the IMF raised its 2024 global growth forecast to 3.1pc, citing unexpected resilience in major advanced and emerging market economies around the world, including the United States and China.
The updated figure is 0.2 percentage points higher than the October forecast.
“The global economy continues to display remarkable resilience, with inflation declining steadily and growth holding up,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told reporters in South Africa on Tuesday.
“The chance of a soft landing has increased, but the pace of expansion remains slow and risks remain,” he added, alluding to policymakers’ attempts to successfully cut inflation by raising interest rates while avoiding a recession.
Despite the upgrade, the IMF predicts that global growth will remain below its recent historical average of 3.8pc this year and the next due to continued impacts of elevated interest rates, the withdrawal of pandemic-related government support and persistently low levels of productivity.
