{"id":74151,"date":"2024-03-22T14:37:26","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T14:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pakistan-to-discuss-extended-fund-facility-with-imf-next-month-says-finance-minister\/"},"modified":"2024-03-22T14:37:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T14:37:26","slug":"pakistan-to-discuss-extended-fund-facility-with-imf-next-month-says-finance-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/pakistan-to-discuss-extended-fund-facility-with-imf-next-month-says-finance-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan to discuss Extended Fund Facility with IMF next month, says finance minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Friday that the matter of an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be discussed in Washington next month as the country looks to alleviate a full-scale economic crisis.<\/p>\n<p>The standby $3 billion arrangement with the global lender expires on April 11, and the two sides <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1822306\">reached<\/a> a staff-level agreement regarding the disbursal of the final tranche of $1.1bn earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have expressed our strong interests in an EFF with the IMF, but the quantum is not clear yet,\u201d Aurangzeb said at a media briefing, adding that the lender was \u201cvery receptive\u201d to the request.<\/p>\n<p>The US has also been \u201cvery supportive\u201d in the matter, the minister said.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, after being sworn in for a second time, had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1821095\">directed<\/a> his finance team to begin work on seeking an EFF from the IMF.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1822946\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>A day ago, he had said that Islamabad needed another bailout package from the Fund, which he had linked to across-the-board structural and economic reforms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to bring economic stability at the macro-level and we have to progress it for which it is decided that we cannot survive without another [IMF] agreement,\u201d Shehbaz had said.<\/p>\n<p>He stressed that the newly elected government would have to work towards a medium-term programme which would have a duration of two-to-three years.<\/p>\n<p>The IMF had also said it would support formulating a new economic programme for the country if it asked for one.<\/p>\n<p>The global lender\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1762360\">rescue package last summer<\/a> had helped Pakistan avert a sovereign default but, to secure it, the country had to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1761667\">revise its budget<\/a>, and raise interest rates, taxes, and electricity and gas prices.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1822888\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>As a result, during the period, the country struggled through inflation as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1757426\">high as 38 per cent<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1762243\">historic depreciation<\/a> in its currency and contraction of the economy.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"bonds\" href=\"#bonds\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>Bonds<\/h2>\n<p>Pakistan will also look to bonds in the international market to help stabilise its economy, Aurangzeb said at today\u2019s briefing, adding that, in the meantime, work is being done on Panda bonds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce our credit rating improves, we will be going to the international market for bonds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1822810\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The finance minister has been keen to capitalise on Pakistan\u2019s relationship with China and had earlier also expressed his intention to tap into the Chinese bond market.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview to <em><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2024-03-22\/pakistan-to-tap-china-market-for-300-million-debut-panda-bonds\">Bloomberg<\/a><\/em> today, he said Pakistan plans to sell as much as $300 million in Panda bonds this year.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Friday that the matter of an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be discussed in Washington next month as the country looks to alleviate a full-scale economic crisis. The standby $3 billion arrangement with the global lender expires on April 11, and the two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/22170125d6bd8c0.png?r=170330","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}