Dar hopes Pakistan to sign staff level agreement with IMF

The Federal Minister for Finance, Ishaq Dar has expressed the hope that Pakistan will sign staff level agreement with IMF in next few days.

According to the media reports, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar made these remarks regarding Pakistan IMF Staff Level Agreement while addressing a seminar on “Reviving economic stability through strengthening of Public Financial Management” in Islamabad on Thursday. He said in past only PML-N government completed IMF program successfully.

On the occasion, Ishaq Dar said process of preparing economic and fiscal frameworks for fiscal year 2023-24 will start very soon. He said given the challenges presented by the current economic situation the upcoming budget will be a step in taking the country out of the economic quagmire.

Also read: Shanghai Thar Coal Power Project starts generating 2640MW electricity

The Finance Minister urged the participants to actively deliberate on major economic challenges and come up with policy recommendations and solutions for reviving economy. He said Pakistan faced similar economic challenges in the past but we took the country out of the crisis. He said economic mismanagement in last few years has completely reversed the progress which country made in 2013-18.

During 2016-17 Pakistan’s economy was ranked 24th in the world, he said, adding that imprudent policies of the last government pushed Pakistan into political crisis adding due to PTI’s policies foreign direct investment was reduced.  He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has recently announced austerity measures which will be adopted to control country expenditures. The government will welcome any suggestions from all political parties for a charter of economy.

The Finance Minister also appreciated Pakistan’s developing partners including World Bank and Asian Development Bank.