Pakistan has received the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the seventh and eighth reviews, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail confirmed Tuesday morning.
This is a critical development signalling that the two sides have reached an agreement.
Pakistan reached IMF accord after US helped: sources
Sources said that Pakistan reached the accord with IMF with the “help” of US, as Islamabad made major progress on the discussions held with the lender regarding the federal budget for the next fiscal year 2022-23.
Speaking on Geo News programme Naya Pakistan, anchor Shahzad Iqbal said that according to his information, Islamabad did get the benefit from reaching out to the US because IMF’s attitude earlier was very rigid and the Fund was putting harsh conditions and probably would have refused to close a deal with the country.
However, the anchorperson added, this was due to the pressure from the US pressure which made it possible for Pakistan but there were still no concessions in conditions.
Major progress in talks with Pakistan: IMF
Last Tuesday, the Pakistani authorities and the IMF evolved a broader agreement on the budget 2022-23 to revise upward the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) target and slash down the expenditures to achieve a revenue surplus in the next fiscal year.
Next day, IMF’s Resident Representative to Pakistan Esther Perez Ruiz said that discussions between the Fund and Pakistan are underway and major progress has been made regarding the budget for the next fiscal year.
