Pakistan to meet IMF delegation in Dubai next week

Pakistan to meet IMF delegation in Dubai next week

Pakistan will meet an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation from November 9 to 16 to review the situation of Pakistan economy, sources from inside the finance ministry of the country said on Friday.

The Federal Finance Minister of Pakistan, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh had said on Tuesday that the country do not need IMF loan assistance anymore and would instead go ahead with a homegrown reform programme.

“We need to signal to the world our continued commitment to reforms and to pursuing a series of steps required to remain financially disciplined,” Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Finance had said in an interview with London-based Financial Times earlier
this week.

“We want to achieve the kind of benchmarks we have set in our own domestic reforms programme. This is a government that wishes to be serious about fiscal restraint,” Mr. Sheikh added further.

However, the finance ministry official would meet with IMF delegation in the next two weeks as the fund holds talks with its member governments every year to assess the condition of the economy. The meetings will be held in Dubai, as reported by the source.

“We will meet with IMF in Dubai for article IV consultations,” said a finance ministry official today.

To avoid a Balance of Payments (BOP) crisis, Pakistan had negotiated a loan package of $11.3 billion with the IMF in 2008. However, the government of Pakistan last month opted out of an extension of a three-year emergency loan worth US$ 11 billion and also
refused from agreeing on a new loan programme saying it is not facing balance of payments crisis.

Whilst the sitting government is opting out of loan extensions and is refusing new IMF loan packages, the economic indicators are showing a decline in the economic health of the country.

The current account deficit of country’s BOP in the first three months of the 2011-12 fiscal year widened to $1.209 billion as compared to $597 million in the same period last year. The Forex reserves of the country stood at $17.15 billion in the last week
of October as compared the record reserves of $18.31 billion in the last week of July 2010.

The economic analysts have said that it is a risky step taken by the government and that country will eventually have to go back to the International Monetary Fund for a new loan to augment the economic sustainability.

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Posted by Asma Rafique on Nov 4 2011. Filed under Latest News, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry