The Pakistan economy is going through some hard times and it is due to receive financial support from the IMF in the following weeks. The fiscal year 2018-2019 did not work how the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf) government expected, with most of the economic indicators well below their estimates.
GDP much lower than anticipated
Real GDP growth for the ongoing fiscal year
dropped to 3.29%, well below an already revised estimate of 5.4%. The provisional GDP expansion was initially expected to come at 5.8% but the incumbent regime constituted a committee that revised downward the estimates.
Agriculture, manufacturing, and the construction sector, which had been the main drivers for growth until last year, performed well below their estimates. In US dollar terms, the Pakistan economy shrunk to $291 billion this year, as compared to $315 billion in the previous fiscal year.
View attachment 565607
Source: pixabay.com
Alt text: Pakistan economy 2019
The budget deficit is expected to reach new highs, estimated at 7.6% as a percent of the GDP, due to expenditures overrun.
Trading (not just online through
FINQ or other brokerage companies) is expected to suffer and the only hope lies in the financial aid which is due to being received from the IMF, one that could have a meaningful impact on the government’s ratings.
$6 billion from the IMF
PTI’s government will receive a
$6 billion loan from the IMF in the next few weeks, as it literally has no place to turn for financial support. The incoming financial assistance will be one of the potentially bad implications for the government in Pakistan.
Imran Khan, the country’s prime minister, had built a campaign discourse against international institutions like the IMF, and now, due to his team’s lack of knowing the country’s limits, he needs to accept help from the very institution he condemned.
The International Monetary Fund is in a better position in the negotiation process, and for the next few years, it will be able to implement an economic policy that will hardly be under government’s control.
Whether the government will manage to survive the rise of inflation and unemployment is still uncertain. However, the IMF program must put the economy back on its track, so the country won’t need new assistance three years later when the bailout package ends. In the meantime, uncertainty is expected to increase as pressure will be high on the current PTI government.