Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday said that “all technical-level discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)” are over. However, the minister refrained from giving a timeline on when the deal will be inked.
During a Question/Answer session at the Senate, Dar said once again that the IMF wants commitments made by friendly countries to materialise.
He reiterated that the country would honor its financial commitments. “There is no chance of default; Pakistan will take care of its responsibilities and complete all payments on time.
There shouldn’t be any politics involved in the economy, he continued, “IMF or no IMF, we need to jointly run the country.”
His remarks come a day after Dr. Aisha Ghaus-Pasha, the Minister of State for Finance, claimed that the reason the staff-level agreement on the 9th review was taking so long was that the IMF wanted to independently verify promises from friendly nations like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
One of the worst fiscal crises in the country’s history has Pakistan in chaos. The South Asian nation has experienced a slew of problems, including a perceived default risk and downgrading by international rating agencies that represent the state of the economy while also having to deal with significant political unrest and frequent changes in key leadership.
Pakistan needs the IMF funding to open up other foreign financing options, so the two parties have been negotiating since early February to reopen $1.1 billion in funding that has been on hold since November as part of the bailout deal reached in 2019.
