By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva to break the deadlock over ninth review for the release of the next tranche of funding under an Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
PM Sharif said a delegation from the IMF would travel to Islamabad in ‘two to three days’ to finalise the review.
The contact was made four days before an expected face-to-face meeting between PM Sharif and IMF’s Georgieva on the sidelines of the Geneva Conference for flood victims.
“I told the IMF that we cannot put more burden on our masses. We have imposed taxes on the rich strata of the society,” Sharif said at a business gathering in Islamabad on Friday.
The PM said he received a call from the IMF Managing Director on Thursday and stressed that Pakistan will complete the bailout programme.
“I requested her to send a delegation for the ninth review and she replied that a team will visit Pakistan in 2-3 days.”
The fund’s programme is a lifeline to the country as Pakistan is in an economic crisis, facing high inflation, a depreciating currency, depleting foreign currency reserves, and a current account deficit. It has been struggling to pay for its imports and debt obligations as its official liquid foreign exchange reserves shrank $5.8 billion in the last week.
Pakistan’s ninth review of staff-level talks with the IMF for the release of its next tranche has been delayed since September, though finance minister Ishaq Dar repeatedly said all targets for the IMF’s ninth review had been completed.
Pakistan entered the $6 billion IMF programme in 2019, which was raised to $7 billion this year. The country will get $1.18 billion after the programme’s ninth review.
The ongoing parleys have so far remained inconclusive mainly because of the inability of both sides to strike a consensus on four major contentious issues, including energy sector circular debt that has peaked at Rs4.17 trillion.
Pakistan and the IMF had a round of engagement on November 18 last year, but could not finalise a schedule for formal talks on the overdue ninth review.
The IMF board in August last year approved the seventh and eighth reviews of Pakistan’s bailout programme, allowing for a release of over $1.1 billion.
PM Sharif said the Chinese premier had told IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on her recent visit to China that Beijing stands by Pakistan and the IMF should support the South Asian country as well.
“After inquiring about Pakistan’s relations with China and Saudi Arabia, she also told me that China had urged the IMF to support Pakistan.”
A statement issued by the Prime Minister office said IMF Georgieva called PM Sharif “over telephone and expressed her deep sympathy and concern on the human and material losses due to the recent floods and reiterated her commitment to help Pakistan in this difficult period”
“The Prime Minister thanked the Managing Director for her concern on the fallout of the floods and extended invitation to the MD to participate in the Climate Resilient Pakistan Conference at Geneva,” the statement said.
IMF chief “thanked the PM for the invitation but explained that as the IMF board meetings had been prefixed for 9th and 10th of January, she will only be able to join the conference virtually”.
he Prime Minister assured the MD that Pakistan is committed to successfully completing the ongoing IMF programme and thanked the MD for her understanding and empathy of the challenges that Pakistan has been facing.”
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