No Change in Pakistan’s External Financing Requirements: IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that there is no change in Pakistan’s external financing requirements for the revival of the bailout program. In a statement, IMF’s Resident Representative in Pakistan Esther Pérez Ruiz denied media reports that the global lender was seeking new financing. “There is no truth to reports that the IMF is asking Pakistan to raise $8 billion in fresh financing,” Ruiz said in a statement. A day earlier, a report published in Express Tribune, subsequently carried by ProPakistani, said that IMF has asked Pakistan to arrange $8 billion in fresh loans to back the external debt repayments during the next seven months. Perez in her statement said that there has been no change in external financing requirements and it has remained the same throughout discussions between Pakistan and the IMF. The IMF and Pakistan held talks between January 31 and February 9 under the ninth review of the authorities’ program supported by the IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement. After the IMF team left, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar expressed confidence that the staff-level agreement (SLA) to unlock $1.1 billion in financing will be signed soon. However, despite the passage of over three months, the SLA is still not in sight with government officials repeatedly saying that they have met all conditions for the revival of the $6.5 billion bailout package. In a recent statement, the finance minister also claimed that Pakistan would not default whether the IMF program resumes or not.