Miftah Ismail says that the government is committed to getting back on the IMF program.
KARACHI: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government is “committed to reviving the IMF program and putting Pakistan back on a sustainable growth path.” Finance Minister Miftah Ismail says so.
Ismail had just come back from Doha, Qatar, where talks between Islamabad and the fund had taken place from May 18 to May 25. Finance Minister Ismail and Nathan Porter, who is in charge of the IMF’s mission in Pakistan, led their groups.
The minister said that the country’s finance delegation had “very useful and constructive discussions with the IMF team over the past week.”
Earlier reports said that the meetings ended in “disappointment” because Pakistan and the IMF could not agree at the staff level to bring back the $6 billion program, despite Miftrah’s promises.
In a handout, the IMF stressed the “urgency of concrete policy actions, such as getting rid of fuel and energy subsidies.”
In a three-part tweet today, Miftah Ismail said, “We talked about big slips in FY22, some of which were caused by the fuel subsidies given in February 2022.”
“We talked about goals for FY 23. Due to high inflation, falling foreign exchange reserves, and a big current account deficit, we would need to have a tight monetary policy and get our finances in order.”
