Jihad Azour, Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that current account deficit is impeding Pakistan's economy from achieving a sustainable level of growth.
During a press briefing of Middle East and Central Asia Department, Azour said; "Pakistan had a relatively high level of growth over the last few years, but it came at high cost in terms of fiscal and external vulnerabilities, and those vulnerabilities need to be addressed in order for growth to be sustainable for the medium term. "We hope after the election, that will take place soon, the government will reconfirm their resolve to the reform agenda that will allow gradually to reduce the level of deficit that grew in the past, as well as also to address the current account deficit that is currently impeding their economy from having sustainable level of growth," Azour added.
He further said that the forecast of the region was included in the world economic outlook and will launch the update for the outlook for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan on May 2nd in Dubai.
While commenting on the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan regions, Azour said that the good news is that growth is improving in 2018 in both oil importing as well as also oil exporting countries. In the region's oil exporters, economic growth bottomed out in 2017 at 1.7 percent but is projected to stage somewhat of a recovery this year and beyond, growing at 2.8 percent in 2018 and 3.3 percent in 2019. This is due in part to strengthening activity in the non-oil sector, which has helped mitigate the effects of lower oil production under the terms of the extended Opec+ agreement.
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