A delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will visit Pakistan in two to three days to complete the ninth review of Pakistan’s $7 billion Extended Fund Facility, according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday (EFF).
He said this while speaking at the Hazara Electric Supply Company (HESCopening )’s ceremony in Islamabad.
In 2019, Pakistan signed up for a $7 billion IMF program, which was later increased to $6 billion. The ninth evaluation of the program, which would release $1.18 billion, is still pending. It was previously delayed for two months because the PML-N-led government refused to agree to some requirements put forth by the Fund, and the issues still haven’t been resolved.
The prime minister mentioned in his speech that he had spoken with Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), about Pakistan’s agreements with the global lender last night.
He made a point of assuring Georgieva that the present administration sought to uphold the provisions of the agreement that the outgoing administration had “broken and shattered.”
He pledged Pakistan’s best efforts to uphold the conditions of the IMF agreement while also emphasizing the devastation caused by the disastrous floods of the previous year.
The “economic crisis is in front of you, I can’t burden the average man any longer […],” Shehbaz claimed he told Georgieva. She gave me the reassurance that she recognises my struggles.
The premier reiterated that he told the IMF official that Pakistan would try and complete the terms of the agreement.
The premier further said that he asked Georgieva to dispatch a delegation to Pakistan in order to complete the ninth review of the IMF program. “She told me that an IMF team will arrive in Pakistan in two to three days”.
