ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said the government has successfully averted Sri Lanka-like situation in the country. He also said that the economy of the country “was now heading in the right direction”.
Miftah said: “There were serious worries about Pakistan heading Sri Lanka’s way and Pakistan getting into a default-like situation, but the government made some significant changes and averted that situation.”
Finance Minister also said that Pakistan was now in International Monetary Fund’s programme as the staff-level agreement had already been signed. He said the IMF board will approve the release of funds under the Extended Fund Facility by end of August.
Miftah also said, “Pakistan was heading in the right direction and the imports have also gone down whereas the Pakistani rupee has appreciated by 7% against the dollar since last week.”
Importantly, the board of the IMF is scheduled to meet either on 24 or 25th of August and by that time, Pakistan will be able to line up $4 billion external financing gap with the support of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
Recently, Chinese consortium of banks has given $2.6 billion loans to Pakistan while Saudi Arabia has promised to double oil supply on deferred payment from $100 million per month to $200 million, which will give a significant relief to Pakistan in imports of fuel oil in this financial year.
