ISLAMABAD - The economic team headed by Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar will unfold the financial story of the outgoing year 2007-08, based on the official statistics so far, with slowing down growth of 5.8 per cent and yawning fiscal deficit much higher than the projected 4 per cent. The Finance Ministry in its announcement made here on Monday, saying the government will present the Economic Survey for 2007-08 on Tuesday, just one day ahead of the much-awaited federal budget for the next fiscal 2008-09. The PPP-led coalition government is presenting the federal budget for 2008-09 tomorrow (Wednesday) in the National Assembly, which is projected with total outlay of over Rs 2 trillion. The tax revenue target is likely to be set at Rs 1,175 billion with some Rs 88 billion of revenue is expected from the additional tax measures, according to tax officials. As projected by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in its recent report and admitted by the economic managers of the PPP-led government, the government is expecting the economic growth at 5.8 per cent, missing widely the revised growth target of 6.5 per cent in the outgoing fiscal year 2007-08. The government's higher borrowings from the central bank for the budgetary support and spending of billions of rupees on the subsidies on the skyrocketing prices of oil and food stuffs, resulting into soaring fiscal deficit between 6 to 7 per cent in the first 3 quarters of the outgoing fiscal 2007-08. However, it is feared that the actual fiscal deficit might be around 9 per cent once the final economic data for the whole year is compiled. The former government had projected to keep the deficit around 4 per cent for the whole year.      The lower than target projected growth is mainly attributed to the poor performance in the agriculture sector, which grew only by 1.5 per cent against the target of 4.8 per cent, large-scale manufacturing (LSM) grew by 5.4 per cent against the target of 12.5 per cent. Services sector, however, is seen well performing at 8.2 per cent and could touch its annual target. The Finance Ministry has publicly admitted that the fiscal deficit target of 4 per cent of the GDP (equivalent to Rs 400 billion) will be missed if corrective measures are not taken promptly. The failure to trim food and fuel subsidies exacerbated spending overshoots, while revenue collection has lagged and after averaging 3.7 per cent of GDP for the past five years, the fiscal deficit ran out of control in 2007/08. The fiscal deficit is on course to be about 9 to 9.5 per cent of GDP in 2007/08, but the government is hoping foreign loans will drag it down to 6.5 per cent, still well above a target of 4 per cent. The current account deficit is expected to be between 7.3 and 7.8 per cent of GDP for the current year, against a target of 4.8 per cent. The bank, in its recent report, expected a record current account deficit in the range of 7.3 and 7.8 per cent of GDP for the current fiscal year. It has forecast the budget deficit at between 6.5 and seven per cent of GDP against a forecast of four per cent. According to the report, as of end-April 2008, the trade deficit recorded in the balance of payments has reached $12.7 billion, contributing directly to the record deficit. According to the report, the impact of heavy government borrowings has been particularly evident in fiscal year 2007-08, rising to a record Rs 551 billion by May 10, 2008 (compared to borrowings of Rs 45.7 billion in the corresponding period of fiscal year 2006-07), almost doubling the total outstanding borrowings to Rs 940.6 billion. "This trend cannot be sustained without risking a substantial further acceleration in inflation," it added. In March, the SBP forecast the 2007-08 inflation at eight to nine per cent. However, its latest report has the average inflation at 11 and 12 per cent. "Inflation was likely to average between 11 and 12 per cent, significantly higher than an original target of 6.5 per cent and also above the central bank's March forecast of 8-9 per cent," the report said.