ZCZC
BCN-02
PAKISTAN-ECONOMY-IMF
Next IMF loan will be ‘the last’: Pakistan finance minister
ISLAMABAD, Oct 21, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Pakistan’s finance minister promised
Saturday to end the country’s reliance on International Monetary Fund
bailouts to shore up its shaky economy, as officials prepare to negotiate a
new loan.
Asad Umar’s pledge comes days after Pakistan’s central bank warned
inflation could double in the coming year — hitting 7.5 percent — while the
country’s growth target rate of 6.2 percent would likely be missed.
“This will be the 13th and the last IMF programme,” Umar said during a
speech at the Karachi Stock Exchange.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration has sent mixed messages over
whether Pakistan will enter another IMF programme, with the former cricketer
suggesting this week that going to the fund may not be necessary.
But Umar spoke in grave terms of the country’s balance of payment crisis,
which has sparked a depreciation of the rupee and sent stocks tumbling.
“We are heading towards bankruptcy very fast. We have to save the 210
million Pakistanis,” Umar added.
An IMF team is set to arrive in Pakistan in early November to begin
negotiations.
Similar vows to end reliance on IMF loans have been made by past
governments including former premier Nawaz Sharif’s administration, which
received a $6.6 billion loan to tackle a similar crisis in 2013.
Khan’s new administration took office in August vowing to weigh up whether
to seek an IMF bailout as it sought other avenues of financing, including
from “friendly” countries such as China and Saudi Arabia.
But aid has been in short supply and economists’ warnings have grown
urgent.
The government also announced this week that Khan would attend a
controversial Saudi Arabian investment summit in the coming days.
The meeting has been shunned by leading policy-makers and corporate chiefs
in response to the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate
in Istanbul — a scandal that has tipped Riyadh into a diplomatic crisis.
BSS/AFP/HR/0936