KARACHI: Significant advancements in negotiations to revive Pakistan’s $6 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have calmed markets and marginally reduced the four-month period of economic uncertainty that took a severe toll on the rupee and undermined investor confidence.
Esther Perez Ruiz, the Resident Representative to Pakistan, stated on Wednesday morning that talks between the Fund mission and Pakistan are ongoing, and significant advancements have been made with regard to the budget for the fiscal year 2022–23.
The IMF staff and the authorities are still talking about how to strengthen macroeconomic stability in the upcoming year, according to Ruiz.
In the meantime, Pakistan and the IMF “locked the budget specifics” and “achieved good progress on finalizing budgetary targets for 2022–23,” according to Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail.
Miftah Ismail, the federal minister of finance and revenue, stated that Pakistan and the IMF had locked down the specifics of the budget and made significant progress in setting the budget’s objectives for 2022–2023 “.
“The IMF will soon share the Memorandum for Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP), the minister added.
The comments were made at a time when Pakistan’s economy is on the verge of a financial crisis, with foreign exchange reserves rapidly depleting and the Pakistani rupee at historic lows versus the US dollar due to the program’s ambiguity from the IMF.
Additionally, the IMF has given up some ground and dropped its prior demand to begin on July 1 to implement an Rs. 30 per liter fuel levy and a 10.5 percent sales tax.
