islamabad
\nThe IMF on Thursday forecast a sharp drop in economic output in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan this year due to the \u200bUS-Israeli-led war against Iran, followed by a rebound to 6.6% growth in \u200c2027, while warning that further energy production disruptions could worsen the outlook.
\nThe International Monetary Fund said the region\u2019s output was expected to contract by 1.3% as a result of the war\u2019s \u200bimpact on energy production, shipping, tourism, trade and confidence. Economic output would \u200bincrease sharply in 2027, but output in those economies would generally stay below pre-war projections.
\nThe war\u2019s impact had been substantial, but uneven, with oil-exporting \u200beconomies directly affected by disruptions to energy production and shipping hit harder, and oil \u200bimporters proving to be more resilient, the IMF said in its regional outlook released Thursday in Dubai.
\nThe IMF said its baseline assumed that the conflict would abate in early 2027 and that \u200btrade would gradually normalize during the year, but it said the outlook remained \u200bclouded by \u201cexceptionally high uncertainty.\u201d
\n\u201cThe main risks derive from further disruption to energy production and trade routes \u200cthat could drive energy prices higher,\u201d the IMF said in a statement outlining its key messages, noting external financial conditions could also tighten.
\nExternal financial conditions could also tighten if investors reassess AI-driven productivity gains and interest rates rise further amid heightened concerns about \u200binflation and fiscal \u200bpositions, it said.
\nOil importers had proven more resilient, with domestic demand supported by remittances and tourism flows, favorable financial conditions, and prompt policy responses \u200bthat safeguard consumers from higher commodity prices, the IMF said. Growth \u200bin the Caucasus and Central Asia was moderating toward a more sustainable pace, the IMF said, forecasting a 5.2% rise in economic output in 2026 and 5% in 2027.
\nThe IMF underscored the \u200bmantra it delivered during last week\u2019s annual meetings, \u200burging policymakers to prioritize maintaining price stability, while preserving fiscal sustainability, maintaining central bank independence and enacting structural \u200breforms to boost productivity and create jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
islamabad The IMF on Thursday forecast a sharp drop in economic output in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan this year due to the \u200bUS-Israeli-led war against Iran, followed by a rebound to 6.6% growth in \u200c2027, while warning that further energy production disruptions could worsen the outlook. The International Monetary Fund said the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":89916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104774,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104762\/revisions\/104774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}