IMF revises Pakistan GDP forecast for FY25 down to 3%

ISLAMABAD: The IMF has revised its GDP growth projection for Pakistan and stated that Islamabad is projected to touch GDP growth rate at 3 percent against officially envisaged target of 3.5 percent for the current fiscal year.

Earlier, the IMF had projected Pakistan’s GDP growth rate of 3.2 percent for FY2025 but now it was revised downward and projected at 3 percent. However, the GDP growth rate of 3 percent for FY2025 was higher than the provisional growth rate of 2.55 percent for the last fiscal year.

The GDP growth rate nosedived for the first quarter (July-September) period and stood at 0.9 percent for the current fiscal year. Keeping in view performance of agriculture and Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM), the GDP growth rate target of 3.5 percent seemed difficult to be achieved for FY 2025.

According to the updated version of IMF’s World Economic Outlook stating that global growth is projected at 3.3 percent both in 2025 and 2026, below the historical (2000–19) average of 3.7 percent. The forecast for 2025 is broadly unchanged from that in the October 2024 World Economic Outlook (WEO), primarily on account of an upward revision in the United States offsetting downward revisions in other major economies.