Hammad lauds Pakistan’s fiscal response against COVID-19

Finance Minister Hammad Azhar applauded Pakistan’s fiscal policies against countering the impact of coronavirus pandemic terming them ‘prudent and well-targeted.'

“Pakistan’s fiscal response to COVID-19 has been prudent and well-targeted, including re-allocation of spending to the most vulnerable through the landmark Ehsaas programme,” said Hammad Azhar in a tweet post.

The minister added that as a result, Pakistan has witnessed one of the smallest increases in public debt in the world after COVID-19, while sharing data of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook.

The IMF has projected Pakistan’s GDP growth rate at 1.5 percent for 2021, against a negative 0.4 percent in 2020. It projected a rise in unemployment from 4.5 percent in 2020 to five percent in 2021.

The IMF in its latest report, “World Economic Outlook (WEO), managing divergent recoveries” has projected GDP growth rate at 1.5 percent in 2021 against -0.4 percent in 2020 and projected at 4 percent for 2022.

The Fund has also projected a decline in inflation from 10.7 percent in 2020 to 8.7 percent in 2021, which is projected to decline to eight percent in 2022. According to the report, consumer prices have projected at end of the period which is elaborated as (monthly year-over-year changes and, for several countries, on a quarterly basis) for 2021 at 10 percent in 2021 and 7.9 percent in 2022.