Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has hinted that the IMF loan programme to Pakistan may expire on June 30 due to the “restricted time” for its revival but asserted that the cash-strapped country would not default, a media report said on Thursday.
Pakistan is in acute need of the USD 6.5 billion loan facility by the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stabilise its economy.
While speaking to a delegation of a regional business body on Wednesday, Dar said, “Our efforts are aimed at completing the second IMF programme in the country’s history, although time has been restricted and the programme is ending on June 30,” The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
He stressed that the delay was “unfortunate” and the review should have been completed earlier. Since 1958, Pakistan has signed 22 IMF programmes but failed to complete all, barring the 2013-16 facility, thanks to nearly 18 waivers from the global lender.
Islamabad signed the current 36-month USD 6 billion Extended Fund Facility in July 2019, which, on request of the then-finance minister, Miftah Ismail, was extended by the IMF by nine months to June 30, 2023, and its size increased to USD 6.5 billion. Over the past almost four years, the programme has been derailed at least four times, including on two occasions during the tenure of the current coalition government, and the failure to complete it will further widen the trust deficit between the country and the financial world, the report said. The government has not yet come up with a credible alternative plan, which has created panic in markets as the Pakistani Rupee is trading in the range of PKR 308 to PKR 313 to a dollar in the open market.
