Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday became angry on questions hurled by journalists that was it his failure for not having an (Staff Level Agreement) agreement with the International Monitory Fund (IMF). Visibly angry Dar refused to answer questions on the new budget and the IMF (deal). Dar quickly rebutted, “Has Pakistan defaulted?”, and explained the government has ensured all our international payments. A journalist asked it is the first time he encountered difficult economic conditions and the economy is not being fixed.

The finance minister replied to journalist to declare whatever the verdict he wanted to give and added, “I will see it later.” On Monday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar addressed a Pakistan’s First International Conference on Islamic Capital Markets assured the nation that government has been trying to fix the economy. The conference was jointly organized by the SECP and AAOIFI. Pakistan says to share budget details with IMF to unlock funds

Pakistan will share its upcoming budget details with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to unlock stalled funds, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday. Hopes for a resumption of an IMF deal are diminishing, analysts say, with a bailout programme agreed in 2019 due to expire on June 30 at the end of the 2022-23 fiscal year. Dar said he would like the IMF to clear its 9th review before the budget, which is due to be presented in early June, as all the conditions for that had already been met.

The IMF funding is crucial for the $350 billion South Asian country, which faces an acute balance of payments crisis. This has raised concerns of a sovereign default, something which the minister dismissed. The central bank’s foreign reserves have fallen as low as to cover barely a month of controlled imports. Pakistan’s economy has slowed, with an estimated 0.29% GDP growth for 2022-2023. “They have asked for some more things again, we are ready to give that too, they say that give us budget details, we will give it to them,” Dar said in an interview with a private Tv news channel.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP