After Pakistan secured a Staff Level Agreement (SLA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Standby Arrangement (SBY), Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in Paris. termed his meeting with the “turning point”. Pakistan
In a press conference after overseeing the signing of the SLA in Lahore, Prime Minister Shehbaz shared with the nation the obstacles to achieving the long-awaited IMF deal. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Maryam Aurangzeb and Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman were also present while talking to the media.
Prime Minister Shehbaz said that he had two meetings with the head of the IMF on the sidelines of the summit for a new global financial agreement in Paris. He added that the head of the IMF told him that the lender did not want Pakistan to default.
The Prime Minister said that the MD of the IMF said that we will move forward, you should also move forward. He added that Pakistan will receive the first installment of SBA after the July meeting of the IMF Executive Board.
The Prime Minister also informed that the President of Sri Lanka visited the IMF MD during the Paris Summit and helped him.
The Prime Minister said that the President of Sri Lanka asked the MD of the IMF to save Pakistan [and then] these people say that Pakistan is becoming Sri Lanka.
The Prime Minister said that everyone in the coalition government lost their political capital to ensure that Pakistan did not default. He also appreciated the hard work of his Finance Minister and said that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also asked the head of the IMF to help Pakistan.
“No one man can decide things, it was a team effort,” the prime minister said.
The Prime Minister also requested the nation to pray that SBY is the last IMF program the country is taking.
The Prime Minister said that countries do not succeed by taking loans, we are forced to take loans. He further said that the common man has been making sacrifices for the last 75 years.
The Prime Minister also thanked Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Asim Munir for helping in securing loans from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE). He also said he was at a loss for words to thank China for helping the country avoid default in the past three months.
Expressing regret over the plight of the country, the Prime Minister said that when he meets the leaders of Pakistan’s friendly countries, he knows that they will ask for a loan. He clarified that the country has to work day and night to get out of this cycle of borrowing.
The Prime Minister also mentioned that there would be austerity in the coming months but assured people that it would be on the elite. He also expressed his commitment to bring investments from the Gulf in agriculture, minerals, IT and small businesses.
Fiscal discipline need, says Dar
Speaking to the media after the Prime Minister, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that in the last 10 days, he worked to convince the IMF, adding that Pakistan wants the SBY to be of nine months.
Dar said that the IMF agreement has been signed and the prime minister has taken great interest in it. He further said that it is his belief that Pakistan is not a defaulting country.
Even if there was no IMF, we had another plan. We have to get out of this disaster that will not happen by crying,” Finance Minister Dar said.
The finance minister stressed that Pakistan should live within its means.
“We spent more than our resources in the last five years. Fiscal discipline is essential like democracy,” Dar said.
IMF reaches staff-level agreement with Pakistan
Earlier today, Pakistan and the IMF reached a long-awaited SLA on a $3 billion SBA, the global lender announced.
“I am pleased to announce that the IMF team has signed a nine-month Standby Arrangement (SBA) with the Pakistani authorities in the amount of SDR 2,250 million (about $3 billion or 111 percent) at the staff level. agreement. IMF quota),” Nathan Porter, the IMF mission chief in Pakistan, said in a statement.
“The new SBA builds on the authorities’ efforts under Pakistan’s 2019 EFF-supported program that ends at the end of June. The agreement is subject to approval by the IMF’s Executive Board, which is expected in July. This request will be considered by the middle.
Funding of $3 billion over nine months is more than expected for Pakistan. The country was awaiting the release of the remaining $2.5 billion of the $6.5 billion bailout package scheduled for 2019, which expires on Friday (today).
With sky-high inflation and foreign exchange reserves barely enough to cover a month of controlled imports, Pakistan is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, which analysts say is due to the absence of an IMF deal. I can default to default.
The deal comes after an eight-month delay and offers some respite to Pakistan, which is grappling with a severe balance of payments crisis and dwindling foreign exchange reserves.
