In 2025 International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut Pakistan’s economic growth forecast to 2.6% -- down from the earlier prediction of 3% made in January.
Pakistan was certainly heavily dependent on loans from the IMF, particularly the 37-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF), making the IMF's assessment very important for the country.
A World Bank report said that more than 10 million people in Pakistan could face extreme food insecurity and starvation in 2025.
The report pointed out that poor climatic conditions are likely to hurt the production of major crops like rice and maize.
One of the immediate effects of halting trade could be a shortage of critical pharmaceutical goods in Pakistan.
Pakistan's imports from India stood at around $304.93 million for the year 2024, based on data from the United Nations COMTRADE database, which tracks global trade flows. A significant chunk of this import value came from just two categories: organic chemicals and pharmaceutical products.
Organic chemicals made up the largest share, accounting for approximately $164.19 million. This includes a range of compounds used in various industries, particularly in manufacturing and healthcare.
Pharmaceutical products followed closely, with imports worth about $120.86 million. These likely consist of essential medicines, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and other healthcare-related products.
The World Bank had also lowered Pakistan’s economic growth forecast to 2.7%.
It warned that the government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif might fail to meet its budget deficit targets, and the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is likely to rise even further.
Pakistan’s economy was already in bad shape, and the situation could have only worsened further.
Inflation could rise again after having eased in recent times.
Pakistan’s central bank expects the country’s average inflation for the fiscal year ending June 2025 to range between 5.5% and 7.5%.
Reports suggested that the prices of basic food items like rice, flour, vegetables, fruits, and chicken in Pakistan had surged sharply.
As per media reports, the price of rice has jumped to Rs 340 per kg, while chicken price has surged to Rs 800 per kg.
The end of India-Pakistan trade was only expected to make this problem even more severe.
 |
| PM Modi with Soldiers and Officers |
In 2025, the big question probably was - Can Pakistan really afford to fight ?
On the economic front; the high inflation is a matter of big worry.
Unemployment had shot up to 7 percent.
Millions of people are unemployed. Pakistan is for all purposes today surviving on IMF dole out.
It's unemployment rate was by April 2025 at 7.5%, with approximately 6.36 million people unemployed.
This was a significant rise from the 6.3% unemployment rate in 2020-21.
The number of unemployed workers hasd also increased from 4.5 million in 2020-21 to 18.7 million in 2023.
Facts and Check list:
Air Force officer Abhinandan was held by Pakistanis in 2019 but the then Prime Minister Imran Khan was forced to release him 'safe and sound'.
In 2025; post-Pahalgam suspension of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) could not satisfy the Indian public, which was outraged. But it left Pakistan further devasated.
PM Narendra Modi himself had raised the expectations bar by two strikes in 2016 and 2019.
Modi done --- the hardliner-reaction after the terror attacks in Uri in 2016 and in Pulwama in 2019.
In Uri, after four Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists stormed the Indian Army brigade unit on September 18, 2016, killing 19 soldiers, India retaliated strongly 10 days later.
Not heard of by Indians as well as Pakistanis; Indian army commandos crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and conducted a series of retaliatory surgical strikes on militant launch-pads.
Probably 150 militants were eliminated and the best thing Pakistan could do was denial.
No comments:
Post a Comment