The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast a drop of 0.1% in Pakistan’s GDP for the current year, and a further decrease of 0.4% in 2015.
According to the IMF’s previous predictions, the GDP growth for developing regions including Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Africa, were 3.3% for 2014 and 4.8% for 2015. However, their latest forecast predicts a steady decline that fixes the growth rate at 3.2% for this year and 4.4% for 2015.
The IMF’s economic report for Pakistan confirmed that the rate of recovery of the country’s manufacturing sector was faster than expected, thanks to the current exchange rate and improvements in the country’s electricity supply. However, the GDP growth rate still suffered a decline due to Pakistan’s poor production of cotton, one of its chief exports.
The report also states a rise in unemployment from 6.7% in 2013 to 6.9% in the current year and predicts it will rise even further to 7.2% in 2015.
Even so, it doesn’t appear to be all bad… In the previous year Pakistan had a current account deficit of 1%, but according to the report the deficit is expected to come down to 0.9% for this year and the next.
In 2013, the Real GDP growth rate was 3.6%, while conjectures for 2014 projected the rate to be 3.1% and expected to rise to 3.7% in 2015.