ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has felicitated the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs for their efforts to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Pakistan and the IMF have reached an agreement under which Pakistan will soon receive one US$ 1.7 billion.
“Congratulations to our Finance & Foreign Office teams led ably by Ministers Miftah Ismail & Bilawal Bhutto for their efforts in getting the IMF program revived,” the prime minister wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
“It was a great team work,” he said.
Shahbaz Sharif said that the agreement with the International Monetary Fund has set the stage to bring Country out of economic difficulties.
Earlier in a Tweet, the Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail said that the agreement has been inked to complete the 7th and 8th reviews of Pakistan’s Extended Fund Facility.
According to a detailed statement issued by the IMF in this regard, the IMF Board will consider an extension of the Facility by end of June next year to support program implementation and meet the higher financing needs in Fiscal Year 2023.
The IMF also issued policy priorities including steadfast implementation of the budget 2022-23, catch-up in power sector reforms, proactive monetary policy to guide inflation to more moderate levels, reducing poverty, strengthening social safety and governance.
The IMF team led by Nathan Porter, in its concluding remarks, said that Pakistan is at a challenging economic juncture where high international prices and a delayed policy action resulted in large fiscal deficits that contributed to rising inflation and eroded reserve buffers.
