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Pakistan is likely to post GDP growth of 0.29% in the fiscal year ending June 2023, according to the country's economic survey launched on Thursday, a day before the federal budget is set to be presented.
The country's economy has been reeling from record high inflation and a slowdown in economic activity, which has been compounded by devastating floods last year and an inability to unlock crucial finances from the International Monetary Fund.
The survey document, released annually to look back at the performance of the economy over outgoing financial years that start on July 1, said that the year-on-year inflation rate for the period up to May 2023 was recorded at 29.2%.
The fiscal deficit stands at 4.6% of GDP for the three quarters up to April, a slight improvement from last year's 4.9%, the survey showed, adding that the primary balance recorded a surplus of 99 billion Pakistani rupees.
On the external side, where Pakistan has also struggled, with foreign exchange reserves that cover barely a month's worth of imports, the survey showed that there had been a narrowing of the current account deficit to $3.3 billion up to April - a 76% drop over last year.
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid and Asif Shahzad; Writing by Gibran Peshimam and Sakshi Dayal; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)