IMF’s demand from Pakistan to do more remains, the IMF mission chief for Pakistan says that the IMF is waiting for the necessary financial assurances as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar have claimed to implement all the IMF’s pre-conditions, but the IMF has not yet agreed to a staff-level agreement, IMF Mission Chief Nathan Porter has issued to the media. “We welcome the recent announcement of significant financial assistance to Pakistan from key bilateral partners,” it said in a statement.
The IMF supports these efforts and looks forward to “getting the necessary financial assurances as soon as possible to pave the way for the successful completion of the 9th review,” the IMF mission chief’s statement was vague as it was unclear. It is not clear how much more external financial assurances are needed to bridge the financing gap.
Senior government sources said Pakistani officials would have to fight hard to arrange an additional $1 billion from bilateral partners to reach a staff-level agreement because the IMF had to pay $4 billion before signing the agreement. Wants to get reassurance.
Pakistan had already secured additional external financing assurances of $3 billion, including $2 billion from Saudi Arabia and $1 billion from the United Arab Emirates, respectively before the IMF estimated that the external financing gap is $6 billion.
Pakistani officials have claimed that the current account deficit for the current fiscal year will be limited to about $4 billion. Still, the IMF estimates that it could go up to $5 billion if the government eases restrictions on the clearance of containers stuck at ports. If import restrictions are eased, the IMF estimates that the deficit could increase by as much as $5 billion.