Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday that a long-term bailout from the International Monetary Fund (MF) was inevitable given the South Asian country's failing economy.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (AFP/File) {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}} {{^userSubscribed}} {{/userSubscribed}}
The comments came a day after the IMF agreed to an interim or staff-level agreement with Islamabad. If approved by the Board, the final tranche of $1.1 billion would be disbursed under the existing $3 billion standby agreement.
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“We hope to get the $1.1 billion IMF tranche next month,” he said at a live-streamed meeting in Islamabad, adding: “We cannot survive without further IMF programs.”
He said the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) two- to three-year long-term plan would require deep structural reforms for the $350 billion economy, which has been under extreme stress for years in the yawning balance of payments crisis. Ta.
An IMF mission on a five-day visit to Islamabad for a final review of the standby program said Pakistani authorities had expressed interest in further relief measures.
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This standby agreement expires on April 11th. The financial institution has already said it will formulate a medium-term program if Islamabad applies.
The government has not formally stated the amount of additional funding it is seeking under the long-term relief. Bloomberg reported in February that Pakistan plans to seek at least $6 billion in loans.
Prior to the standby agreement, Pakistan had to meet IMF conditions, including a budget review and interest rate hikes, as well as generating revenue through higher taxes and electricity and gas prices.
As a result, inflation rose to 38% last summer, leading to a historic devaluation of the local currency and economic contraction.
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