ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new finance minister Miftah Ismail left for Washington on Thursday to meet senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials and ensure the revival of a stalled $6 billion loan program.
Ismail traveled to the United States after receiving a go-ahead from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to engage with the IMF for the resumption of the seventh review under the loan facility agreed in July 2019.
Sharif, who was elected to the top political office of his country on April 11, faces the daunting task of managing a stuttering economy with huge deficits.
“I am off to Washington DC to try and put back on track our IMF program that PTI [Pakistan Threek-e-Insaf] and IK [Imran Khan] derailed, this endangering our economy,” Ismail said in twitter post on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ismail said in press briefing in Islamabad after the first cabinet meeting that “God willing, we will revive the [loan] program,” adding that “the prime minister has ordered me to put less burden on people and find a way to revive the IMF program.”
The new finance minister expressed optimism that Pakistan would be able to reach a staff-level agreement with the international lending agency.
He said the government would “do belt tightening and cut PSDP [Public Sector Development Funds].”
The IMF approved a disbursement of $1 billion to Pakistan in February after completing the sixth review of the economic reforms under the loan program.
Negotiations with the IMF are currently stalled for the third time in three years after the seventh review talks collapsed when the country’s previous administration announced fuel subsidies and a tax amnesty scheme.
Out of the $6 billion loan, $3 billion are yet to be disbursed, though only five months remain before the expiry of the program.
