Tag: Imf

ISLAMABAD - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has categorically told the government to come up with economic reforms to qualify for the next tranche of $1.7 billion under the $11.3 billion standby arrangement which is suspended since May last year as Pakistan failed to implement the agreed reforms roadmap.
Pakistan has already received $7.5 billion but the IMF has held back two tranches, which, a source privy to the meetings between the IMF and the government said, are

JAKARTA - The IMF on Wednesday said it had learnt from its mistakes during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis and had undertaken reform to give the region's countries a greater say in how the Fund is managed. IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the organisation wanted a fresh start with Asia as he visited Indonesia and met President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Indonesia was hit hard by the Asian crisis and the IMF remains deeply unpopular in the country of 240 million people

ISLAMABAD - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday categorically conditioned its support to Pakistan with immediate measures to implement economic reforms to control the rising fiscal deficit and inflation, as the government asked for at least one more tranche of the $11.3 billion stand-by arrangement.
The IMF team, consisting of the Mission Chief for Pakistan Adnan Mazarei and Director Middle East and Central Asia Department Masood Ahmed, and Resident Representative

ISLAMABAD - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to stress for expeditious implementation of the economic reforms for the revival of the economy as well as controlling the rising fiscal deficit, an official source said on Saturday.
A two-member IMF team, consisting of Mission Chief for Pakistan Adnan Mazarei and Director Middle East and Central Asia Department Masood Ahmed, will arrive on January 30. The team will meet President Asif Ali Zardari and Finance Minister

ISLAMABAD - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed concern over the slow pace of economic reforms, saying they were halting further investment in the country and severely impacting poor communities.
An official source said the IMF has recently suggested to the government to expedite work on the economic reforms, otherwise poor segments of the society would become poorer. The IMF stressed that the chances of investment in the country were picking up, but it was

KARACHI - The prices of commodities soared in 2010, partly in response to strong global demand but also to supply shocks in the case of certain commodities. Upward pressure on prices is expected to persist in 2011, due to sustained robust demand and the sluggish response of suppliers to tightening market conditions.
As a result, the IMF's baseline petroleum price projection for 2011 is now $90 per barrel, up from $79 per barrel in October 2010. As for non-oil commodities,

WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked Pakistan to cut its energy subsidies, saying they were crippling the country's economy
Calling the energy subsidies "inefficient and untargeted", IMF spokeswoman Caroline Atkinson said these subsidies were consuming a large part of the country's budget. She said the bulk of energy subsidies were being cornered by the people of a higher income group and large companies, adding that the government should make efforts so

ISLAMABAD - The financially-strapped government has been rendered incapable of establishing an infrastructure bank to meet the ever-rising financial needs because of its commitment with International Monetary Fund (IMF), Secretary Finance Waqar Masood Khan informed the Senate Standing Committee on Finance on Wednesday.
He was replying to complaints by the senators that the rolling back development finance institutions (DFIs) was a major impediment in the country's

LAHORE - The International Monetary Fund has issued a stern warning to Pakistan to take measures to cut its spiralling budget deficit, according to a senior Pakistani government official, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In an official letter to the government, the IMF warned that the state of the nation's economy was far worse than previously realised and urged immediate fiscal belt-tightening measures, said the official, who has seen the missive, the paper said. A spokesman

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI - Pakistan has assured the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it would implement the policy measures for reforms during the nine-month extension in the standby arrangement programme in order to achieve the budget deficit target of 4.7 percent of the GDP.
This was revealed by the IMF in its report prepared by its staff after concluding the December 17 negotiations with Islamabad on the state of economic developments and policies in Pakistan.
A letter

ISLAMABAD - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked the government to introduce an equitable tax system in the country to overcome the chronic low tax to GDP ratio, which is at the same level since the last 20 years.
Addressing a conference of the Pakistan Society of Development Economists on Wednesday, IMF Mission Chief Paul Ross said, "The tax to GDP ratio has not changed during the last 20 years." Observing that the prevalent tax system was inequitable, he suggested

KARACHI - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday approved a nine-month extension of Pakistan's $11 billion loan, which was scheduled to end this year.
The standby loan programme had two tranches remaining, but will now run through Sept. 30, 2011, with the two tranches broken up and spread out over that time.
Here are some questions and answers on the nine-month extension.
The government initially requested a nine-month extension to have time to finish

KARACHI - The country's fiscal deficit may exceed seven percent of economic output, endangering its standing with international donors, due to a delay in implementing a reformed general sales tax (GST), analysts said on Monday.
The reformed GST, which is supposed to replace the current GST, was originally scheduled for implementation in July but has been delayed several times since then. Even its latest implementation date, January 1, seems unlikely now. The delays will squeeze

WASHINGTON - The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday approved - on a lapse-of-time basis - a nine-month extension of Pakistan's Stand-By Arrangement to September 30, 2011.
"The extension will provide time to the Pakistani authorities to complete the reform of the general sales tax, implement measures to correct the course of fiscal policy, and amend the legislative framework for the financial sector," the IMF said in a statement.
The IMF staff

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has decided to seek US help to ensure the nine-month extension from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its $11.3 billion standby arrangement programme.
The decision to approach the Obama administration has been made after the country's economic managers decided that without Washington's influence, it would be a daunting task to get the IMF agree to Islamabad's request.
"Apart from Washington, Pakistan is also likely to approach other friendly

ISLAMABAD - The government is headed towards troubled waters, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is unlikely to grant it the desired nine-month extension in the already suspended $11.3 billion standby arrangement programme.
Informed source said the programme had an in-built mechanism for an extension of up to three months, but the extension of another six months seems unlikely to be granted, as it construes that the government is not prepared to implement the reformed

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to seek an extension of an $11 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme to win more time to implement the reforms needed to secure the next tranche, a finance ministry official said.
The IMF's programme, agreed in November 2008, has kept the US ally's fragile economy afloat, and is increasingly critical for Pakistan as it grapples with a widening fiscal deficit and the devastation of the summer floods. Finance Ministry Secretary Salman