ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Dr Reza Baqir have signed Letter of Intent (LoI) and dispatched it to IMF headquarters for getting approval of next tranche of $452 million next week.Now the IMF’s Executive Board is scheduled to meet on December 19 at Washington DC for approving the first review and release of second tranche under $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF).On behalf of Pakistan, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and Reza Baqir signed LoI and its attachment Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) to demonstrate commitment that Islamabad would pursue all committed reforms and conditions so the Executive Board of Fund should grant its approval for release of next installment worth $452 million.“The IMF management have circulated signed MEFP among the members of Executive Board and now the meeting is scheduled to take place before Christmas holidays on December 19, 2019 for approving release of next tranche” official sources confirmed to The News here on Thursday.When asked to Special Secretary Finance and official spokesman Omar Hamid Khan last week, he told this scribe that Pakistan had not made any request to the IMF for granting of any waiver as all required performance criteria were met successfully.However, the sources said that there were certain performance indicators on which Islamabad could not perform well within the envisaged deadline of period of first review so it is yet to see how the IMF treats in such scenario.This scribe had also contacted to IMF’s Resident Chief in Pakistan Teresa Daban Sanchez last week, she replied that everything was ready for Board meeting before Christmas as originally planned.The official sources said that with completion of first review and approval of second tranche on December 19, Pakistan will be able to get $452 million probably before Christmas holidays.Now the IMF next review mission is expected to visit Islamabad in February 2020 for gauging the economic performance of the country as it would focus on key targets under Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme and then both sides would also hold parleys on focused areas for the upcoming next budget for 2020-21.With conversion of current account deficit into surplus, Pakistan’s external position strengthened but fiscal front of the country was still possessing challenging situation. Although, the country performed well on primary balance so far but the fiscal challenges and lower GDP growth remained major challenges. Another major challenge for the government has been rising inflationary pressures. The low growth coupled with double digit inflation is two edged sword making lives of common people of Pakistan worst at a time when the country made good progress on curtailing the current account deficit.
from The News International - National https://ift.tt/2Pg7Syb
0 comments:
Post a Comment