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 30 June at the end of the 2022-23 financial year.
Pakistan's Finance Minister 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 Us dollar 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 percent GDP growth for 2022-2023.
The IMF's 1.1 billion dollar funding to Pakistan, which is part of the 6.5 billion dollar Extended Fund Facility agreed in 2019, has been held up since November.
The fiscal adjustments have already fuelled Pakistan's highest-ever inflation, which hit 36.5 percent year-on-year in April.
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