[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s Finance Minister, stated on Thursday that an agreement between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund is imminent (IMF).
“I and my team are absolutely committed to completing this [IMF] programme to the best of our ability…We seem to be very close to signing a staff-level agreement hopefully in the next few days,” said Dar.
Addressing a seminar in Islamabad, the minister added that the country is facing several challenges currently, adding that the coalition government was handed over an economy that was “in shambles”.
He added that the “government is trying to revive the economy and will overcome the economic problems soon”.
“To top it [off], the prior administration had consented to an IMF-extended lending facility. Sadly, they did not honour their agreements and instead overturned several of the conditionalities they had first enacted before leaving the government. This caused a significant lack of confidence between Pakistan and its development partners, he added.
Dar pledged that the previous administration’s agreements would be upheld no matter what the circumstances.
The finance czar went on to say that since Imran Khan, the country’s former prime minister, departed from the IMF programme, Pakistan’s economic issues have gotten worse.
Furthermore, Pakistan Tehreek-e-(PTI) Insaf’s erroneous policies, according to Dar, “undermined the confidence of development institutions” and “led to a lack of foreign investment and an increased budget deficit” under the previous administration.
Read More: IMF asks financial assurances
Slowly but surely, Pakistan and the IMF are making progress towards a staff-level agreement. The Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policy (MEFP), a collection of policies that the nation will execute throughout the remaining portion of the current fiscal year, has not yet been finalised. However, there are still a few concerns that need to be resolved.
A staff-level agreement (SLA) with the Fund was “near to finalisation,” Central Bank Governor Jameel Ahmad had stated the day before, but he had refrained from providing a timeline due to his prediction of a decline in non-debt producing inflows.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
