July 30, 2025 (MLN): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected Pakistan’s GDP growth at 3.6% for the ongoing fiscal year 2025–26, falling short of the government’s ambitious 4.2% target.
The forecast was issued in the Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook Update titled “Global Economy: Tenuous Resilience amid Persistent Uncertainty.”
While the outlook for FY26 signals modest improvement, the IMF has also slightly revised Pakistan’s growth estimate for the recently concluded FY25 to 2.7%, up by 0.1 percentage point.
This revised figure is nearly in line with the Finance Division’s assessment, which reported a real GDP growth of 2.68% for FY25 in its June economic outlook.
The IMF’s projection aligns closely with other development partners. The World Bank expects Pakistan’s economy to expand by 3.1% in FY26, while the Asian Development Bank (ADB) anticipates 3.0% growth.
ADB has also nudged its FY25 estimate upward to 2.7% from an earlier 2.5%, mirroring the trend of cautious optimism among multilaterals.