Pakistan’s 3-month fiscal deficit at 1.5pc of GDP

KARACHI: Pakistan’s budget deficit for the first three months of the 2009/10 fiscal year was Rs223.67 billion ($2.68 billion) or 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), the Finance Ministry said on its website.

 
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the government had targeted a budget deficit for the three months ending on Sept 30 of Rs194 billion, or 1.3 per cent of GDP.

However, the country’s central bank governor told Reuters last month Pakistan would meet its fiscal deficit target in the first six months of this fiscal year despite slippage in the first quarter.


Pakistan has pledged to keep its fiscal deficit at 4.9 per cent of GDP in the 2009/10 fiscal year under a loan agreement with the IMF.

The IMF bailed out Pakistan in November 2008 with a $7.6 billion emergency loan package to avert a balance of payment crisis as the economy was hit by imbalances and political and security uncertainties.
The IMF, which increased the loan to $11.3 billion in July, has disbursed more than $5 billion.—Reuters