Pakistan’s economy to grow 1.5% in 2021, forecasts IMF

In its World Economic Outlook (WEO) 2021, the IMF forecasted Pakistan’s growth rate at 1.5 per cent in 2021 and 4.4% in 2022.

In October 2020, the global lender had projected the growth rate at one per cent.

The IMF has projected the Indian economy as the fast-growing at 11.1% in 2021 while China’s economy is expected to grown at 8.1% and Turkey’s economy at 7%.

Although recent vaccine approvals have raised hopes of a turnaround in the pandemic later this year, renewed waves and new variants of the virus pose concerns for the outlook. Amid exceptional uncertainty, the global economy is projected to grow 5.5 percent in 2021 and 4.2 percent in 2022.

The 2021 forecast is revised up 0.3 percentage point relative to the previous forecast, reflecting expectations of a vaccine-powered strengthening of activity later in the year and additional policy support in a few large economies, said IMF in a report.

The projected growth recovery this year follows a severe collapse in 2020 that has had acute adverse impacts on women, youth, the poor, the informally employed, and those who work in contact-intensive sectors. The global growth contraction for 2020 is estimated at -3.5 percent, 0.9 percentage point higher than projected in the previous forecast (reflecting stronger-than-expected momentum in the second half of 2020).