Pakistan predicted to be world’s fastest-growing Muslim economy in 2017

Pakistan’s estimated 5.3% GDP growth also makes it world’s fifth fastest-growing economy in the world

Pakistan has been forecasted to be the world’s fastest-growing Muslim economy in 2017 ahead of Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and Egypt, according to London’s The Economist magazine.



Pakistan’s estimated GDP growth – 5.3% - is also ahead of 4% GDP growth of Israel. This makes Pakistan world’s fifth fastest-growing economy in the world, only behind India and China and two other countries.

The live data, which is updated twice-daily, is published on The Economist website in the form of an interactive table of economic and financial indicators. This data reinforces a Harvard University study which predicted Pakistan to grow by more than 5% in the next decade.



The 2017 forecast of 5.3% growth is, however, lower than the 2016’s 5.7% forecasted growth rate, which means Finance Minister Ishaq Dar must take steps to put economy on the path of irreversible growth.

In 2014, The Economist had forecasted Pakistan to be world’s sixth fastest-growing country.



This year, the four world economies ahead of us are: India (7.5%), Vietnam (6.6%), China (6.4%), and Philippines (6.4%). And we are ahead of large Muslim economies such as: Indonesia (5.2%), Malaysia (4.6%), Egypt (4.0%), and Turkey (2.9%).

All of these countries except Malaysia are going to be among the top 20 economies in the world in 2050.

Wali Zahid is a former journalist who now trains senior executives to improve workplace effectiveness.