On 7 September 2010, the International Labor Organization
reported that the floods had cost more than 5.3 million jobs, stating that "productive
and labor intensive job creation programmers are urgently needed to lift
millions of people out of poverty that has been aggravated by flood
damage". Forecasts estimated that the GDP growth rate of 4% prior to the
floods would turn to −2% to −5% followed by several additional years of
below-trend growth. As a result, Pakistan was unlikely to meet the
International Monetary Fund's target budget deficit cap of 5.1% of GDP, and the
existing $55 billion of external debt was
