Pakistan-IMF Deal Due ‘Any Day’: Commerce Minister

Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar said Wednesday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will likely announce its staff level agreement on Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with Pakistan soon. Pakistan has taken all the steps needed to unfreeze the IMF funds and this should happen “any day now,” he said in an interview in Washington. The agreement will give investors and creditors confidence that “Pakistan’s economy is now stabilizing, has taken all the right steps, so in that sense, their money will remain protected,” Qamar said. “The IMF program is the beginning, not the culmination, of all other monies flowing in”. The World Bank sees Pakistan’s economic growth accelerating to 3.2 percent in the fiscal year through June 2024 from 2 percent in the current year, a period when floods cost the economy billions of dollars. A pickup in imports once the country boosts its reserves will also benefit exports, the minister said. Limited foreign exchange reserves restricted Pakistan’s ability to fund imports, including intermediary goods, and stranded thousands of containers of supplies at ports. The weaker exchange rate also will help boost exports, Qamar added.