Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif said that he expected to sign an agreement with the IMF this month. (file)
Islamabad, Pakistan:
Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Friday expressed hope for an early settlement with the IMF, prompting the global lender to announce its plan to send a staff mission to the cash-strapped country.
Mr Sharif’s remarks come at a time when the country’s economy is precariously bound with foreign reserves of only $3.7 billion, considered a critical level by experts.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the Green Line train service here, Sharif said, “I am quite hopeful that an agreement with the IMF will be signed this month and we will come out of these difficulties. And multilateral institutions will also support us.” “
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday announced the sending of its staff mission to Pakistan on January 31 for talks on the ninth quarter review of its funding program pending for nearly four months. Successful completion of the review will release USD 1.2 billion for the country.
It would also open other channels for loans as friendly countries and multilateral lenders were also waiting for IMF approval to provide much needed assistance to Pakistan.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar urged the United States to use diplomatic influence to persuade the IMF, to show a lenient attitude towards Islamabad, amid tough conditions put forth by the global lender to revive its fund programme. between.
The rupee continued to depreciate against the dollar for the second consecutive day as the country anxiously waited for the release of the next tranche of the IMF’s USD 7 billion package.
It had declined by Rs 24.54 on Thursday and Rs 7.17 on Friday in the interbank market.
Prime Minister Sharif acknowledged that it was a difficult time but assured that his coalition government was working day and night to steer the country out of the crisis.
Addressing the same event, Finance Minister Dar blamed the previous government of Imran Khan for the current economic disaster, but promised to bring back development and economic growth.
He said, “We will try our best to do as many reforms as we can before the coming general elections under the guidance of PM Shahbaz. You can see the history that who brings development and economic growth. We will be back on track.” Stating that the task was difficult and the distance was long.
He urged for a proper analysis to see why Pakistan moved to the 47th largest economy, when it was the 24th largest economy in 2018, when the government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party took over. Completed his term.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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