The International Monetary Fund shared lists of prerequisite actions asking Pakistani authorities to move towards implementing them in the next three weeks if they want to revive the stalled loan programme.
The IMF told the Pakistani authorities that the time has come to take “all required actions.”
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A timeframe of two to three weeks has been given for implementing all required actions paving the way for a staff-level agreement and releasing of $1 billion tranche under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar expected to hold consultations with his core economic team in a couple of days for evolving consensus on required actions to be taken in the coming few weeks to pave the way for the revival of the IMF programme.
While Talking to Private Media Channel, a top official confirmed on Friday, “now the ball is in the court of Islamabad whereby the IMF asks the government to take actions on account of fixing cash-bleeding energy sector including power and gas, taking additional taxation measures and pursuing structural reforms in the remaining period of the Fund programme.”
On Thursday, Pakistan and the IMF officials held another round of virtual talks, in which the finance minister assured the lender that Pakistan was expecting to receive dollar inflows from one friendly country by late Dec or early Jan, keeping in view dwindling foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan that nosedived to $6.11 billion.
Earlier on December 20, the center asked the IMF to review the conditions of the agreement because of the recent flood havoc in the country and global inflation, the government cannot take more tough decisions.
