ISLAMABAD, June 10 Reuters Pakistan39;s coalition government is expected to lay out ambitious fiscal targets in the 20242025 JulyJune budget on Wednesday that will help strengthen its case for a new bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund, officials and analysts said.

Pakistan is in talks with the IMF for a loan estimated to be anything between 6 billion to 8 billion to avert a default for an economy that is growing at the slowest pace in the region.

The budget holds critical significance for Pakistan39;s IMF programme and must close the gap between our revenue collection and total expenditure; it is thus likely be contractionary, said Ali Hasanain, head of the economics department at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

Pakistan narrowly averted a default last summer thanks to a shortterm IMF bailout of 3 billion over nine months.

While its fiscal and external deficits have been brought under control, it came at the expense of a sharp drop in growth and industrial activity as well as high inflation, which averaged close to 30 in the last financial year and 24.52 over the last 11 months.

The growth target for the upcoming year is expected to be higher at 3.6 compared to 2 this year and economic contraction last year.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed public commitment to tough reforms since being elected in February elections, but high prices, unemployment and a lack of new job opportunities have piled political pressure on his…