Islamabad, Dec 31 (PTI) Pakistan’s economic situation is facing “severe headwinds” with inflation being forecast to stay high between 21-23 per cent and the cash-strapped country’s fiscal deficit widening by more than 115 per cent in the first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) in its Monthly Economic Update and Outlook said that the economic growth is likely to remain below the budgeted target in FY23 due to devastation caused by floods, the Dawn newspaper reported.
“This combination of low growth, high inflation and low levels of official foreign exchange reserves are the key challenges for policymakers,” alerted the MoF on Friday. According to the MoF report, the overall fiscal deficit stood at 1.5 per cent of GDP (Rs1.266 trillion) during July-October 2022-23 as compared to 0.9 per cent of GDP (Rs 587 billion) last year.
