The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised down its economic growth outlook for Asia to 7 percent this year and 5.3 percent next year, however, the bank says that Pakistan’s economy looks to be on track for previously projected recovery.
The ADB has revised down the growth outlook for Asia after renewed outbreaks of coronavirus disease led to slower growth in the third quarter. ADB’s latest estimates, presented in a regular supplement of the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2021, compare with the bank’s September forecasts of 7.1% growth for 2021 and 5.4% for 2022. Prospects for this year have been revised slightly downward for all subregions except Central Asia.
The ADO said that Pakistan’s economy looks to be on track for previously projected recovery. In Pakistan, cotton and sugarcane production increased with favourable weather, while ser-vices bounced back as mobility tracking meas-ures recovered beyond levels in March 2020, before the pandemic.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in September projected Pakistan’s GDP growth to reach 4 percent in the fiscal year 2021-22 (FY22) as business activity gradually resumed in the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic.