Pakistan FM Miftah Ismail to meet IMF officials for $6 billion bailout package

Pakistan's Finance Minister Miftah Ismail embarked on a US trip, on Thursday, to meet with top International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials. He will be meeting with officials in an attempt to renegotiate a USD 6 billion bailout package that had been stalled by the previous government led by Imran Khan. Pakistan is slated to get USD 6 billion for a period of 39 months under the agreement inked in 2019, but it has only received half of that sum so far. Meanwhile, cash-strapped Pakistan is hoping that the international lender will resume talks on its seventh review, which has been put on hold owing to the country's political upheaval.

“I am off to Washington DC to try and put back on track our IMF program that PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) and IK (Imran Khan) derailed, this endangering our economy. And more happily, after 3 years of being on ECL, I will get to travel to London on the way and meet my leader Mian Nawaz Sharif [sic],"  Ismail wrote in a Twitter post. He also slammed the previous government for putting the country's economy in jeopardy. 

IMF forecasts annual growth of 4% for Pakistan

Pakistan's Central Bank Governor Raza Baqir will also be present at the meeting with IMF officials. The IMF will release almost USD 900 million if the seventh review is authorised, which would be a welcome remedy to the country's declining economy, which is facing dwindling currency reserves and a current account deficit crisis, PTI reported citing Geo TV. In its most recent assessment on Pakistan, the IMF forecasts annual growth of 4%, compared to 4.8% estimated by the country's central bank.

Pakistan PM slams previous govt for mismanaging economy

In his first press conference as the country's finance minister on Wednesday, Ismail claimed the IMF had presented a list of demands for the bailout package to be implemented again. Meanwhile, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif claimed that the previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government mismanaged the economy, accusing former Prime Minister Imran Khan of borrowing loans to cover the country's defence spending. The Pakistani Prime Minister also stated that the country's economic position had worsened to the point where even defence spending had to be funded through loans.

(With PTI inputs)

Image: AP/Twitter/@ranaadeem