It is the hope of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that an agreement with the IMF can be reached this month.
“We continue to hold out high hopes that the IMF programme will be implemented”. In an interview with the Turkish News Agency, the prime minister stated that the upcoming ninth review would be in accordance with all terms and conditions.
The prime minister stressed that Pakistan has complied with all of the IMF’s conditions. The prime minister reaffirmed, “I repeat, every requirement of the instuitution as prior actions has been met.”
Pakistan will soon get IMF approval
He noted that while some of these measures are typically implemented following board approval, the lender had insisted that they be implemented prior to board approval, and that the country had done so.
When asked about back-up measures in case negotiations with the IMF break down, the prime minister emphasised the “resilience and fortitude” of the Pakistani people. The people of Pakistan, he remarked, had “tightened our belt” and “risen again” before when faced with adversity.
Since early February, the country’s government has been in talks with the IMF to release $1.1 billion of a $6.5 billion bailout package signed by the previous administration in 2019. Although nearly four months have passed since the last staff-level mission to Pakistan, the staff-level agreement has not yet been signed.
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