IMF bailout finalised: Minister

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund have signed a bailout package on exchange rate, public finances, fiscal deficit and energy prices, finance minister Asad Umar has said.

“We have reached an agreement and all the major issues have been settled and documented,” Umar told a parliament panel on finance and revenue on Monday. He said the IMF staff mission would visit Islamabad this month to conclude various technical tables that would then be shared with the committee.

Umar said the exact size of the fund programme had not be concluded, but added it would be between $6 billion and $8 bn.

Major inflows would then come from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank that had been blocked owing to insufficient import cover and the absence of IMF umbrella.

Asked about reported IMF demands for complete details of Chinese loans, the finance minister said such reports were unfounded and surprising because the fund had asked questions on the subject last October and all the details of the Chinese assistance were provided as the government felt there was nothing to hide. There was a lot of talk about Chinese debt and when the IMF) mission came to Pakistan we shared data on the very first day, said Umar, amid concerns that the IMF bailout may be used to pay off Chinese loans.

“There is nothing really to hide. It is less than 10% of the public debt of Pakistan,” the minister said in an interview.

He claimed the financial crisis was over now, but stabilisation would continue for some time which could not be expedited or else the country would again see a balance of payments crisis.

Umar also told the parliamentary committee that Pakistan had dispatched a compliance report to the Financial Action Task Force. He said after reviewing the report the Paris-based agency that tackles terror financing and money laundering will send a delegation to Islamabad by the third week of May for inspection.

IMRAN KHAN TO MAKE 1ST VISIT AS PM TO IRAN

Prime Minister Imran Khan will pay an official two-day visit to Iran on April 21 on the invitation of President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani. This will be the first visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Iran.

According to a foreign office statement, the visit will include a brief stopover in Mashhad before arriving in Tehran for bilateral talks with the Iranian leadership.

The prime minister will call on Iranian Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei, besides holding detailed consultations with President Rouhani.