Islamabad: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has changed its mind about how much money Pakistan needs from other countries. They now say it's $25 billion, which is $3.4 billion less than before. The IMF also thinks the country's economy will only grow by 2%, not as much as the government thought.
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| Pakistan has requested a $25 billion loan from the IMF. |
The IMF also said that inflation, or how prices go up, will be 22.8% this year, not as high as the government predicted (25.9%).
The IMF didn't agree with the government on how much money
they'll owe to other countries, how much they'll buy from other countries, how
fast the economy will grow, how much prices will go up, and how much money
they'll need. But after talking about it this week, they changed their minds
from what they thought in July this year.
The IMF also got the government to say when they'll have
elections, but they didn't talk about some important things that caused
problems with the last $6.5 billion loan.
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The Finance Ministry, which handles money for the country,
didn't say anything about this.
Compared to what the government thought in July, the IMF
now says Pakistan only needs $25 billion from other countries this year,
not $28.4 billion. The government has already borrowed $6 billion in four
months and expects to get $12.5 billion from loans they already had.
But there's still about $6.5 billion more that they need, and it's harder to get because of problems with getting loans from other countries and banks.
The IMF didn't agree with the government about how much
money they'll owe to other countries this year. The government thought it would
be $4 billion to $4.5 billion, but the IMF says it will be $5.7 billion. The
IMF also thinks Pakistan will buy $58.4 billion worth of things from other
countries, not $54.5 billion like the government said.
The IMF also thinks people living outside Pakistan will
send less money back (remittances), and the country will sell less stuff to
other countries (exports). The IMF thinks the economy will only grow by 2%, not
as much as the government thought.
The government said it's not worried about getting the
money it needs, but it's still going to be tough because there's less money
available. The IMF now says the economy will only grow by 2%, not 2.5% like
they thought in July. The IMF also thinks prices will only go up by 22.8%, not
25.9% like before.
The government had said prices would go up by 20% to 22%,
but the IMF thinks it will be closer to 16.5%. The government had also said
prices would start going up more slowly from January, but that might not happen
because the cost of electricity and gas is going up.