Pakistan says economic problems easing: Forbes

Economic woes complicating Pakistan's struggle against Islamic militants are easing thanks to a tough rescue plan backed by the International Monetary Fund, but the program needs more than a year to succeed, the country's finance chief said Friday.

The perilous state of Pakistan's economy - which faced trouble even before the global economic crisis - is raising concern that unemployment and inflation will destabilize the nuclear-armed nation's pro-Western government and fan Islamist violence.

Shaukat Tarin told reporters the country's budget and trade deficits have already narrowed considerably.

The government's budget deficit will decline from 7.4 percent of gross domestic product in the past fiscal year, when ended in June, to between 4 percent and 4.2 percent in the current year, Tarin said.

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