IMF predicts Pakistan’s gross debt ratio to remain above legal limit

Washington: Due to the fact that the expenditure of the Government of Pakistan is much higher than the total income, the deficit is likely to be Rs1,137 billion more than the target in the current financial year.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its report has predicted that the total financial deficit will exceed Rs8000 billion, while the overall debt ratio is also more than 72% this year against the legal limit of 60%.

According to the report, the government has set a financial deficit target of 6,905 billion rupees, but due to higher expenditure than income, Pakistan's financial deficit this year is estimated to be Rs1137 billion more than the target. Expenditure is likely to reach almost double the total revenue.

The deficit is forecast to be 7.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) instead of 6.5 percent while the debt ratio is expected to be 72.2 percent instead of the statutory target of 60 percent. Gross income will be 12.5 percent, gross expenditure will be 20.1 percent of GDP.