{"id":78800,"date":"2024-04-11T20:29:37","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T20:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/important-issues-remain-to-be-solved-as-pakistan-seeks-potential-follow-up-programme-imf-chief\/"},"modified":"2024-04-11T20:29:37","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T20:29:37","slug":"important-issues-remain-to-be-solved-as-pakistan-seeks-potential-follow-up-programme-imf-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/important-issues-remain-to-be-solved-as-pakistan-seeks-potential-follow-up-programme-imf-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Important issues remain to be solved as Pakistan seeks potential follow-up programme: IMF chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday said that Pakistan is in discussions with the Fund on a potential follow-up programme to the previous nine-month $3 billion stand-by arrangement (SBA), adding that important issues remained to be solved.<\/p>\n<p>Georgieva told an event at the Atlantic Council think tank, that Pakistan was successfully completing its existing programme with the IMF and the economy was performing somewhat better, with reserves now being built up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a commitment to continue on this path and the country is turning to the Fund for potentially having a follow-up programme,\u201d Georgieva said, flagging issues that the country still needed to address.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are very important issues to be solved in Pakistan: the tax base, how the richer part of society contributes to the economy, the way public spending is being directed and of course, creating \u2026 a more transparent environment.\u201d<\/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\/1825777\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The newly elected government and the IMF last month <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1822306\/imf-pakistan-reach-staff-level-agreement-on-final-bailout-review\">reached a staff-level agreement<\/a> (SLA) on the second and last review of the $3bn SBA, which, if cleared by the global lender\u2019s board, will release about $1.1bn in funds. The IMF\u2019s board is expected to review the matter in late April, but no firm date has been set, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>Both sides have also spoken about negotiating a longer-term bailout and continuing with necessary policy reforms to rein in deficits, build up reserves and manage soaring debt servicing.<\/p>\n<p>Finance Minister Muhammad Aurang\u00adzeb had last month expre\u00adssed the hope for reaching an SLA with the IMF by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1824601\">end of the fiscal year<\/a> (June 30).<\/p>\n<p>The finance minister had said that details of the deal would be discussed during the spring meetings, and he would lead a delegation to Washington around April 14 to 15.<\/p>\n<p>Aurangzeb had said the Fund was \u201cvery receptive\u201d to a \u201clar\u00adger and longer progr\u00adamme\u201d in his recent communications with them.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, after being sworn in for a second time, had directed his finance team to begin work on seeking an extended fund facility 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>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>Shehbaz had 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<h2><a id=\"next-imf-programme\" href=\"#next-imf-programme\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>Next IMF programme<\/h2>\n<p>In its end-of-mission <a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"link--external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/en\/News\/Articles\/2024\/03\/19\/pr2491-pakistan-imf-reaches-staff-level-agreement-second-final-review-9-month-sba\">statement<\/a> announ\u00adc\u00ading last month\u2019s SLA on the successful completion of an existing short-term facility, the IMF had said Pakistan \u201cexpressed interest in a successor medium-term Fund-supported programme with the aim of permanently resolving Pakistan\u2019s fiscal and external sustainability weaknesses, strengthening its economic recovery, and laying the foundations for strong, sustainable, and inclusive growth\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It said that during the SLA talks, the Fund also laid bare the broader, though well-known, conditionalities of the next programme on which \u201cdiscussions are expected to start in the coming months\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>As in the past programmes, four central areas would remain under focus for reforms. The top objective of the next medium-term programme \u2014 Extended Fund Facility of about 36 to 39 months \u2014 would be strengthening public finances, including through gradual fiscal consolidation and broadening the tax base, especially in under-taxed sectors (read real estate, retail and wholesale trade and agriculture) and improving tax administration to improve debt sustainability and create space for higher priority development and social assistance spending to protect the vulnerable.<\/p>\n<p>The second objective of the next programme would be restoring the energy sector\u2019s viability by accelerating cost-reducing reforms, including through improving electricity transmission and distribution, moving captive power demand to the electricity grid, strengthening distribution company governance and management, and undertaking effective anti-theft efforts.<\/p>\n<p>The third key objective would be returning inflation to the target, with a deeper and more transparent flexible foreign exchange market supporting external rebalancing and rebuilding foreign exchange reserves.<\/p>\n<p>The fourth and last critical aim would be promoting private-led activity through the above-mentioned actions as well as the removal of distortionary protection, advancement of reforms on state-owned enterprises to improve the sector\u2019s performance, and the scaling up investment in human capital to make economic growth more resilient and inclusive and enable Pakistan to reach its economic potential.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday said that Pakistan is in discussions with the Fund on a potential follow-up programme to the previous nine-month $3 billion stand-by arrangement (SBA), adding that important issues remained to be solved. Georgieva told an event at the Atlantic Council think tank, that Pakistan was successfully [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78801,"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\/04\/11224305745ddd1.jpg?r=230108","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78800","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=78800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}