ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister of Pakistan Dr Hafeez Sheikh along his team are off to Washington to preside over the end of the current IMF programme.
According to Finance Minister eight out of the nine programmes that Pakistan got into with the Fund have been unsuccessful and government was unable to implement three major economic policy commitments, limiting fiscal deficit to 4.7 per cent of GDP, introducing integrated value added tax (VAT) and power sector reforms, which lead to technical completion of an unsuccessful $11.3 billion programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on September 30.
This is the eighth programme with the IMF to conclude on an unsuccessful note. On the eve of the departure of Pakistan’s economic team for Washington to attend annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank, the finance minister told journalists that Pakistan would not waste its energy on revival of the incomplete programme or seek a fresh programme owing to a comfortable external balance of payments position.
Dr Hafeez however said that the government would stay on course on power sector reforms and macroeconomic adjustment and stabilisation programme and take steps so that it has reasonable credibility to return to the IMF programme with ease in case of any difficulty with external account.
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