ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb expressed hope on Friday for reaching a Staff-Level Agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the end of the fiscal year.
The 3 billion dollars standby arrangement with the global lending agency expires on April 11, and the two sides reached a staff-level deal regarding the disbursal of the final tranche of 1.1 billion dollars last week. The minister has previously expressed the government’s intention to seek “larger and longer” bailout package from the IMF.
During the gong ceremony organized at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the finance minister said that the the agreement details would be discussed during the spring meetings in Washington, USA where the delegation led by him would go around 14 to 15 April.
IMF receptive
He said that they had requested to enter a longer and larger programme during the SLA discussions to which the IMF was receptive, adding that the size of programme has not been decided yet.
He said that we need the Extended Fund Facility to execute the structural reform agenda.
Over implementing the reforms, the minister said that the governmnet has gone into the implementation stage in the last few weeks with a two-pronged strategy. There is one short-term to medium-term strategy, which is closing the gaps, stemming the leakages and the losses. While the second one is phasing in the structural reforms in the medium to longer-term.
Moreover, he reiterated that the private sector had to lead the country while the government’s job was to provide policy framework and continuity and that it had no business being in business.
