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Reuters
ISLAMABAD
Pakistan has reached an “agreement in principle” with IMF over bailout package, the country’s state minister for revenue said on Monday after the lending body announced arrival of its staff mission in Islamabad later this month.
A mission team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will travel to Pakistan this month, the IMF said in a statement.
Hammad Azhar, the minister, said the staff mission’s visit was just aimed at finalising technical details.
“An agreement in principle has been reached with IMF,” he announced in a tweet, hours after Pakistan’s Finance Minister Asad Umar returned home from Washington where he had meetings with the IMF and World Bank.
Pakistan was last year expected to sign up for its 13th IMF bailout programme since the late 1980s but talks ground to a halt, with Pakistani officials saying the conditions attached to the proposed IMF loans could hurt economic growth. Pakistan’s macroeconomic outlook has deteriorated in recent months, with the central bank lowering growth forecasts and raising rates at a time when inflation is at a five-year high. The rupee currency has also lost about 35 percent since December 2017.
“At the request of the authorities, an IMF mission will be going to Pakistan before the end of April to continue the discussions,” the IMF said in a statement.
Pakistani Finance Minister Asad Umar earlier this month visited Washington for talks with the IMF, which on Monday described those talks as “constructive discussions”.
The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who took power in August, has obtained temporary relief from close allies such as China and Saudi Arabia with short-term loans worth more than $10 billion to buffer foreign currency reserves and ease pressures on the country’s current account.
But analysts have been saying an IMF bailout is inevitable, with Pakistan also facing an increasing fiscal crunch ahead of the annual budget spending review for the next financial year starting July 1.
ISLAMABAD
Pakistan has reached an “agreement in principle” with IMF over bailout package, the country’s state minister for revenue said on Monday after the lending body announced arrival of its staff mission in Islamabad later this month.
A mission team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will travel to Pakistan this month, the IMF said in a statement.
Hammad Azhar, the minister, said the staff mission’s visit was just aimed at finalising technical details.
“An agreement in principle has been reached with IMF,” he announced in a tweet, hours after Pakistan’s Finance Minister Asad Umar returned home from Washington where he had meetings with the IMF and World Bank.
Pakistan was last year expected to sign up for its 13th IMF bailout programme since the late 1980s but talks ground to a halt, with Pakistani officials saying the conditions attached to the proposed IMF loans could hurt economic growth. Pakistan’s macroeconomic outlook has deteriorated in recent months, with the central bank lowering growth forecasts and raising rates at a time when inflation is at a five-year high. The rupee currency has also lost about 35 percent since December 2017.
“At the request of the authorities, an IMF mission will be going to Pakistan before the end of April to continue the discussions,” the IMF said in a statement.
Pakistani Finance Minister Asad Umar earlier this month visited Washington for talks with the IMF, which on Monday described those talks as “constructive discussions”.
The government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who took power in August, has obtained temporary relief from close allies such as China and Saudi Arabia with short-term loans worth more than $10 billion to buffer foreign currency reserves and ease pressures on the country’s current account.
But analysts have been saying an IMF bailout is inevitable, with Pakistan also facing an increasing fiscal crunch ahead of the annual budget spending review for the next financial year starting July 1.
