ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected government gross debt at 86 percent of the GDP for 2021 compared to 87.2 percent in 2020.
According to the IMF report, “Fiscal Monitor, policies for the recovery” the government net debt is projected at 79.1 percent of the GDP for 2021 against 79.7 percent in 2020.
The government revenue is projected at 16.1 percent of the GDP for 2021, and 17 percent for 2022 against 15.1 percent during the same period of 2020.
The Fund has projected government primary balance at -0.4 percent for 2021 against -1.7 percent in 2020.
Further, the government overall balance is projected at -6.7 percent for 2021 against -8 percent in 2020.
The report has projected government expenditure to decrease to 22.8 percent of the GDP in 2021, and 22.2 percent in 2022 compared to 23.1 percent in 2020.
The fund further stated that Pakistan’s deficit is estimated to have tightened for its fiscal year that ended in June 2020 as Covid-19 impacted only the fourth quarter, and the capacity to scale up spending was limited. Green and environmental investment can be combined with public employment programmes to maximise investment’s job impact (as with the Green Army projects in Australia or the Conservation Corps in the United States), retrain the labour force, and protect people in the informal sector (for example, tree-planting programmes in Ethiopia and Pakistan).
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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