Pakistan’s Fiscal Deficit Rises to Highest Level in 28 Years
- Budget gap rose to 8.9% in year ended June from 6.6% year ago
- Revenue collection trend dismal ahead of IMF quarterly reviews
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Pakistan’s budget deficit rose to the highest in almost three decades, ahead of the International Monetary Fund’s first quarterly review of a bailout program that sought to curtail a fiscal blowout.
The deficit increased to 8.9% of the nation’s gross domestic product in the year ended June compared with 6.6% a year earlier, according to provisional numbers released by the Finance Ministry. That’s a big miss for the government, which targeted a narrower 5.6% gap.