The prime minister is expected that the budget deficit in Pakistan to climb to 6-7 percent of GDP in fiscal year 2010/2011 as a result of flooding, on Wednesday.
"He estimated the budget deficit before the crisis of the floods to hit 4.5 percent of GDP, now estimated to be up to 6-7 percent of gross domestic product," Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said the Council of Ministers.
Gilani said a disaster would hit the economy hard.
"The floods have affected the economy, which go up according to some estimates 43 billion dollars, in that they affect 30 percent of all agricultural land," he said.
The Finance Ministry said Pakistan's budget deficit for the fiscal year 2009/10 (July-June) and was 6.3 percent of gross domestic product, on its website on Tuesday.
This compares with a deficit of 5.2 percent in fiscal year 2008/09.
The monsoon floods have affected an estimated 18 million people, swept an area larger than England, and destroyed more than 3.4 million hectares of crops.
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, which was fragile before the floods hit more than a month. (Writing by Michael Georgi; Edit By Thomas Janowski) (Reuters to cover more than Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)
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