Islamabad, 7 April 2023 (GNP): Government authorities said on Friday that Pakistan’s finance minister has cancelled a trip to Washington for the April meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, citing local political unrest as the explanation.
Minister Ishaq Dar was supposed to attend meetings from April 10 to April 16 in Washington and meet with senior IMF officials to discuss removing obstacles for the restoration of the $6.5 billion initiative that had been halted.
At the end of January, Islamabad and the IMF have been discussing the release of $1.1 billion from a $6.5 billion rescue package decided upon in 2019. The government has reduced subsidies, abolished a fictitious exchange rate ceiling, increased taxes, and increased gasoline costs in order to get the funds.
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Agreement has been postponed, nevertheless, due to promises of extra funding from Pakistan’s friendly states.
During the scheduled meeting, the Finance Minister was also scheduled to stop in the UAE. There, he was to meet with government representatives in order to get another $1 billion from them, which might have opened the door to negotiating a staff-level deal with the IMF.
The Finance Minister’s visit has been canceled but a delegation from Pakistan, comprising the secretaries of finance and economic affairs, Hamed Yaqoob Sheikh and Kazim Niaz, will attend the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. Jameel Ahmad, the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will also visit with the delegation. On the outside of the conference, the group will speak with IMF representatives in an effort to persuade them to give Pakistan the next installment.