Https, July 14 -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted continuous negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic on different economies and lowered Pakistan's growth projection by about 1 percentage points for the current fiscal year driven by weaknesses in second half of 2020.

The IMF's Regional Economic Outlook Update: Middle East and Central Asia released on Monday said the markdowns in growth during the second half of 2020 are also reflected for Egypt and Pakistan, both of which lowered their fiscal year 2020/21 (which starts July 2020) projections by about 1 percentage point, driven by weaknesses in the second half of 2020.

Pakistan envisaged GDP growth rate at 1 percent for the current fiscal year against negative 0.4 percen...