Islamabad, July 15 (UNI) After striking a staff level agreement with the IMF, Pakistan now plans to generate approximately $9 to $10 billion in loans from other multilateral creditors, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank through programme and project lending during the current fiscal year, The News reported on Friday.
The revival of the IMF program will pave the way for provision of a Letter of Comfort (LoC) from the Fund and the revival of program/policy lending from the WB, ADB and IDB. The IMF’s Executive Board is expected to meet after the second week of August 2022 for considering the combined approval of the 7th and 8th Reviews and the release of $1.17 billion tranche under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
However, the revival of the IMF program hinges upon price increases only, and the Fund did not mention any structural reforms for removing bottlenecks of the economy that ultimately resulted in the surfacing of twin deficits, known as the budget deficit and the current account deficit.
The IMF ignored the rising inflation in its statement on the occasion of striking staff level agreement with Pakistani authorities, giving strength to the perception that Washington-based lender is totally indifferent to miseries being faced by inflation-stricken middle income salaried and pensioners.
UNI ACL