World Bank assures its full support for economic reforms

Monitoring Desk

WASHINGTON: The World Bank assured its support for the economic reforms of reforms after a Pakistani delegation meet with them on Monday at Washington DC.

The team from Pakistan including Secretary of Government of Pakistan’s Finance Division Shahid Mahmood, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Tariq Bajwa, and Secretary of Government of Pakistan’s Economic Affairs Division Arif Ahmed Khan and Bank team was led by Annette Dixon, Vice President of the South Asia region.

The Pakistani delegation informed the achievement in the fields of exports, revenue mobilization and remittances. The bank appreciates the Pakistan efforts in the last four regarding the stability in economy of the country and in achieving 10 year high growth of 5.3 in 2017.

However, the macroeconomic objectives are at a risk from “headwinds in the external sector and a rising fiscal deficit”, which, in turn, led foreign funding requirements to rise to approximately $17 billion — five to six percent of 2018’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The goals of Pakistan’s delegation meeting with the Bank’s officials comprised talks pertaining to the macroeconomic outlook, infrastructure financing, renewable energy, human capital development, and private sector development.