KARACHI, Pakistan -Pakistan s central bank on Friday kept its main interest rate unchanged at 7%, citing the need to support financial stability during the economic recovery from the COVID-19.
(Updates with Fitch rating)
ISLAMABAD, May 28 (Reuters) - Pakistan’s government has set a 4.8% GDP growth target for the financial year starting on July 1 as the country recovers from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, Planning Minister Asad Umar said on Friday.
For the year ending next month, Pakistan has said it is on course to achieve 3.94% GDP - more than double the IMF’s view and roughly triple the World Bank’s projection.
“This growth is an indicator that the revival that has started is continuing its momentum,” Umar told a news conference in Islamabad.
The government has met with scepticism over its forecast for the current financial year, which it has raised from a previous 3% and an original target of 2.1% set in the last budget.
Masked and restricted by COVID-19, Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr
05/13/2021 9:29
(Reuters) - People across Asia celebrated Eid al-Fitr with masks and prayers, but in many places COVID-19 restrictions were in place to limit the joyous mass gatherings and family reunions that usually mark the Muslim holiday.
Millions of people across the continent would typically travel to their hometowns to celebrate with their families and crowd markets, shopping malls and mosques - scenes the authorities in hard-hit countries are trying to avoid.
In Indonesia, the world s most populous Muslim-majority country, the faithful wore masks as they arrived at the Dian Al-Mahri mosque in Depok, a city to the south of Indonesian capital Jakarta, and they sanitised their hands before going in.
08 May 2021 - 15:04
Reuters
Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday received its first batch of 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses under its COVAX quota, UNICEF said in a media release. Today Pakistan received its first shipment of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines (SII-AZ AZD1222) from the COVAX Facility, it said.
COVAX, a global programme to provide vaccines mainly for poor countries, has recently been hit by supply problems. (Reporting by Gibran Peshimam; editing by Jason Neely)
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