Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaks on the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has met IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva and mentioned a brand new mortgage programme for the cash-strapped nation to place the financial system again on observe.
In a gathering on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Special Meeting in Riyadh, the premier thanked Ms. Georgieva, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, for her help to Pakistan in securing the USD 3 billion standby association (SBA) from IMF final 12 months that was now nearing its completion.
Pakistan secured the USD 3 billion IMF programme in June final 12 months, which helped it avert a sovereign default.
Pakistan is looking for a brand new long-term Extended Fund Facility (EFF) after the present SBA expires this month.
“Both sides also discussed Pakistan entering into another IMF program to ensure that the gains made in the past year were consolidated and its economic growth trajectory remained positive,” in response to a press release issued by the Pakistan PM’s workplace on Sunday.
Mr. Sharif reiterated his authorities’s dedication to place Pakistan’s financial system again on observe.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has mentioned Islamabad may safe a staff-level settlement on the brand new programme by early July.
Islamabad says it’s looking for a mortgage over no less than three years to assist obtain macroeconomic stability and execute long-overdue and painful structural reforms, although Aurangzeb has declined to element what measurement of the programme the nation seeks.
If secured, it might be Pakistan’s twenty fourth IMF bailout.
The USD 350 billion financial system faces a continual stability of funds disaster, with almost USD 24 billion to repay in debt and curiosity over the following fiscal 12 months — thrice greater than its central financial institution’s overseas forex reserves, in response to Geo News.
According to the state-run PTV News publish on X, this was the primary assembly between the prime minister and Georgieva since his re-election final month. They final met in Paris in June 2023 on the margins of the Summit for New Global Financial Pact.
Watch | Data Point: How Pakistan’s financial system is faltering
The IMF Executive Board is anticipated to fulfill on April 29 to resolve on the ultimate tranche of USD 1.1 billion below SBA, the publish mentioned.
Ms. Georgieva appreciated the management of Mr. Sharif for well timed securing SBA final 12 months, in response to the assertion.
During the assembly, the prime minister mentioned that he had directed his monetary crew to hold out structural reforms, guarantee strict fiscal self-discipline and pursue prudent insurance policies that might guarantee macro-economic stability and sustained financial development.
The IMF MD shared her establishment’s perspective on the continuing programme with the premier, together with the overview course of.
Separately, Prime Minister Sharif highlighted the “global inequity” in healthcare whereas talking at a panel dialogue on ‘Redefining Global Health Agenda’ in the course of the particular assembly of WEF.
“Today, I think the first and foremost problem is global inequity,” he mentioned, including that the Covid-19 pandemic had “exposed” these imbalances and gaps. “Imagine the global North and the global South; distribution of vaccines and so on and so forth,” he mentioned.
He additional mentioned that local weather change had “completely changed the landscape. Pakistan does not contribute (to) even a fraction of emissions. Yet we are on the red list of climate change and in 2022, we experienced the worst floods in Pakistan (…)and we had to invest hundreds and billions of rupees to rehabilitate people.”
This is the prime minister’s second journey to Saudi Arabia in lower than a month. He final went on a three-day go to to the dominion, which was his first overseas go to since he was re-elected as premier.
Separately, Mr. Sharif held a gathering on Sunday with Islamic Development Bank (IDB) President Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser, the place they each agreed upon the earliest completion of varied ongoing tasks of the IDB in Pakistan.
During the assembly, held on the sidelines of the WEF, the premier thanked the IDB for investing USD 1 billion in numerous tasks in the course of the earlier PML-N-led tenure, a press release on PML-N’s X account mentioned.