IMF rejects Pakistan’s request to relax $6bn external financing requirement

ISLAMABAD – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has turned down a request made by Pakistan to relax requirement of arranging $6 billion in new loans for revival of the bailout package, Minister of State for Finance Dr Aisha Pasha told a committee of the National Assembly. 

Pasha gave a policy statement during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, he said there was no option other than reviving the loan programme stalled since September last year. 

She revealed Pakistan had requested the global lender to lower the requirement of arranging the $6 billion external financing based on latest account deficit data, but the IMF did not agree. 

Previously, she said there was an agreement that Pakistan would arrange $3 billion before the staff-level agreement and the remaining $3 billion after the agreement, but now the Fund had asked the South Asian country to arrange all the $6 billion. 

She categorically stated that there was no plan B if the talks with the IMF fail to produce any positive results. “There is no option other than going back to the IMF, and I categorically say there is no Plan B,” Tribune quoted the minister as saying. 

The statement depicts that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent telephonic conversation with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva did not remain fruitful as the global lender continues to hold its ground. 

The state minister said Pakistan has shared the budget for the next fiscal year 2023-24 with the IMF, adding that the government was awaiting response from the lender.