Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said on Friday that his government will be able to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the ninth review of the Extended Fund Facility this month.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the Green Line Express train, the Prime Minister said that I hope that we will soon reach an agreement with the IMF this month and we will come out of these difficulties and then multilateral and bilateral institutions will be ours. Will work together. Service at Margalla Train Station.
The Prime Minister said that in view of the precarious situation of foreign exchange reserves, the government has prepared a list of items that need to be imported as per their requirement.
He added that the list includes food and medical items.
He questioned how long Pakistan will depend on others to run its affairs, adding that the journey is definitely difficult but not impossible, but to get out of this crisis, we have to work day and night.
Commenting on the Green Line Express train service, the Prime Minister said that the foundation stone laying ceremony for the project was held during the tenure of his brother Nawaz Sharif but like other projects “it failed to take off”.
Khawaja Saad Rafiq worked hard for the improvement of railways. Look at the condition of railways after Saad Rafiq, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that like other departments, Pakistan Railways is also suffering from difficulties.
The prime minister said he wished ML-1 would not be the subject of “unnecessary allegations”, adding that unwarranted allegations of corruption had been made against Chinese companies and relations with Beijing had been damaged.
IMF team will arrive by end of month.
The Prime Minister’s assurance came a day after the international lender’s representative in Pakistan said an IMF delegation would soon visit Pakistan to learn details of the review of the stalled Ninth Expanded Fund Facility.
Islamabad is dealing with a severe economic crisis as foreign exchange reserves are at their lowest level in eight years and the Pakistani rupee has fallen to a historic low. This is close to default risk.
“At the request of the authorities, a personal fund mission is scheduled to visit Islamabad from January 31 to February 9 to carry out the 9th EFF review,” Esther Perez Ruiz, resident representative of the IMF in Pakistan, told JEE News on Thursday. The conversation can continue.”
The representative noted that the delegation will focus on several policy areas during its meetings with Pakistani officials, who are now taking steps to meet the funding requirements for program rehabilitation.
“The mission will focus on policies to restore domestic and external sustainability, including strengthening the fiscal position with sustainable and high-quality measures supporting the vulnerable and flood-affected; restoring the viability of the power sector; and reverse the persistent accretion. Revolving credit; and restore the proper functioning of the FX market, allowing the exchange rate to offset the FX deficit.”
He said that strong policy efforts and reforms are critical to reduce the current high level of uncertainty, strengthen Pakistan’s resilience, and secure financial support from government partners and markets that are critical to Pakistan’s sustainable development.
