IMF chief praises Pakistani authorities for sustaining financial stability

Managing Director (MD) Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva lauded the Pakistani authorities for “sustaining financial stability and well timed implementation of reforms”.

“Met with Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar at COP28,” Georgieva shared in a put up on social media platform X, previously often called Twitter, late Friday.

“We mentioned commendable progress made by the federal government to keep up financial stability and well timed implementation of deliberate reforms,” she added.

Caretaker PM on Friday held casual interactions with a number of world leaders, on the sidelines of the COP28 summit.

The interim prime minister additionally interacted with Georgieva on the event.

The remarks come because the South Asian nation, which is working underneath a caretaker authorities, stays in an IMF programme.

In July, Pakistan inked a last-minute Stand-By Association (SBA) with the Washington-based lender amid default fears. Below the $3 billion SBA program, Pakistan acquired $1.2 billion from the IMF as the primary tranche in July.

The nine-month settlement then paved the best way for inflows from multilateral and bilateral companions together with Saudi Arabia, UAE and World Financial institution, offering a cushion to the depleting international alternate reserves place.

The IMF programme additionally gave some respiration room to Pakistan’s economic system that has been combating a boom-and-bust cycle for many years within the absence of significant structural reforms.

Final month, the IMF workers and Pakistani authorities reached a staff-level settlement on the primary overview of the SBA program. The federal government expects approval from the IMF’s government board in December.

Weeks in the past, the IMF chief, whereas speaking to Bloomberg TV, praised the Pakistani authorities for pursuing the IMF program regardless of tough circumstances.

“Pakistani authorities and the Caretaker Finance Minister deserve credit score for sticking to this system they’ve in a really tough time,” she mentioned again then.

Georgieva termed decrease tax assortment a significant situation of Pakistan, because the nation’s tax-to-GDP ratio stays at 12%. “We’re saying it needs to be a minimum of 15% to have the revenues to maintain the functioning of Pakistan,” she mentioned whereas urging authorities to gather taxes that may pay them.