Pakistan slashes provisional GDP growth to 0.29 percent for ongoing fiscal year

A labourer pulls a cart loaded with supplies to deliver to a nearby market in Karachi, Pakistan May 24, 2023. (REUTERS)
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Updated 25 May 2023
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Pakistan slashes provisional GDP growth to 0.29 percent for ongoing fiscal year

  • Pakistan's central bank says GDP growth likely to remain significantly lower for the financial year 2022-23 than last year 
  • The country has posted its highest-ever inflation at 36.4 percent in April and its currency has depreciated to a historic low

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan lowered its GDP growth forecast for the current fiscal year, ending June 30, to 0.29 percent from 2 percent, the country's national accounts committee said in a statement, as a slowdown in the agriculture and industrial sectors curbed growth.

Gripped by economic turmoil and suffering a balance of payments crisis, Pakistan is trying to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to disburse the stalled final $1.1 billion from a $6.5 billion bailout agreed in 2019.

Pakistan's central bank said on Friday that GDP growth was likely to remain significantly lower for the financial year 2022-23 than the previous year when growth was revised up to 6.1 percent.

The committee corrected its previous year's GDP growth numbers, which a spokesperson said was a typographical error.

The country posted highest ever inflation at 36.4 percent in April and its currency has depreciated to a historic low.

The national accounts committee's latest GDP growth forecast is lower than the World Bank's estimate of 0.4 percent, while the IMF said in April that the growth would be 0.5 percent.

A government official amended the rate for 2021-22 growth to Reuters in Islamabad.


Turkiye ‘in talks’ with Pakistan and Saudi over defense pact

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Turkiye ‘in talks’ with Pakistan and Saudi over defense pact

  • Turkish foreign minister says no agreement has been signed yet despite ongoing discussions
  • The proposed alliance follows Pakistan-Saudi defense pact signed after brief India conflict

ISTANBUL: NATO member Turkiye is holding talks with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to join a defense alliance established in September between the two countries, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Thursday.

“At present, there are discussions and talks underway, but no agreement has yet been signed,” Fidan told reporters.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “vision is broader, more comprehensive, and aimed at establishing a larger platform,” he added.

The Pakistan-Saudi pact was signed just months after Pakistan and India fought an intense four-day conflict in May that killed more than 70 people on both sides in missile, drone and artillery fire, the worst clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbors since 1999.

Pakistan and India have long accused each other of backing militant forces to destabilize one another.

Saudi Arabia is believed to have played a key role in defusing the conflict.