By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday criticised the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for delaying a bailout program for the country, saying it was “totally unfair” and had contributed to the economic turmoil.
Dar presented a budget for the next fiscal year on Friday that aims to boost economic growth to 3.5 percent in the next fiscal year, while keeping the budget deficit below 7 percent to meet the conditions of an IMF bailout program.
The IMF has withheld the release of the next tranche of its $6.5 billion loan program since November last year, over financing assurances from Pto bridge the balance of payments gap
Dar said the IMF had no reason to object to the new budget, which he claimed was better than what the government had sent to the lender earlier this week.
He blamed the previous government led by Imran Khan, who resigned in March after losing a confidence vote, for eroding the trust between Pakistan and the IMF.
“The trust eroded because of the previous government’s antics,” he told Geo TV. “The previous regime made a sovereign commitment in 2019-20, but it failed to implement it. Whatever little (decisions) they implemented were also reversed. That’s what led the IMF to deal with us in this way.”
He also accused the IMF of being influenced by geopolitics, without elaborating.
“The IMF is one of the main contributors to the economic turmoil in Pakistan along with political instability,” he said. “This is geopolitics. I can’t say much on camera, but the ninth review (of the loan program) should have been completed by February. Its delay was totally unfair treatment toward Pakistan.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who took office in April, said earlier on Friday that Pakistan had accepted and implemented all the conditions and prior actions required by the IMF, and hoped that the lender’s board would approve the completion of the ninth review this month.
He said he had spoken to the IMF managing director over the phone and asked for a verbal commitment regarding the signing of the agreement.
“I suggested to her that if she provided me with a verbal commitment, we would take a few more steps the lender had asked for. Once we received the verbal commitment from her, we took those steps too, so now, no other (requirements) are left that could turn out to be an impediment in signing this deal,” he said in a speech before presenting the budget.
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