Former President of FPCCI and President of United Business Group (UBG) Zubair Tufail said that the credit of the 9-month standby arrangement with the IMF goes to Prime Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and the Ministry of Finance. The entire team goes to the Army Chief General Asim, the Finance Minister, and the team of the Ministry of Finance, China, Saudi Arabia, UAE and the Islamic Development Bank deserve full congratulations. The program will allow Pakistan to make fundamental reforms, subject to approval by the IMF’s executive board in mid-July, which has been plagued by a severe balance of payments crisis and dwindling foreign exchange reserves. Pakistan will get some respite.
According to the statement issued by the central spokesperson of United Business Group, Gulzar Feroze, Zubair Tufail said that this new program is much better than our expectations, it will reduce the uncertainty now, and inflation will also be reduced to some extent. A reduction is possible; the business conditions at the local level will improve while the confidence of foreign investors will be restored.
Zubair Tufail said that the funding of 3 billion dollars over nine months is more than expected for Pakistan, as the country will settle in 2019. Wale was awaiting the release of the remaining $2.5 billion from the $6.5 billion bailout package, which expired on Friday, May 30.
Zubair Tufail further said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva in Paris on June 22 and the Prime Minister’s efforts later paved the way for Pakistan’s standby arrangement.
He said Pakistan’s economy had faced several challenges recently, including devastating floods last year and rising commodity prices following the war in Ukraine, despite government efforts to reduce imports and the trade deficit. Although liquidity conditions in the power sector remained very low, the IM agreement provided a framework for stabilising the economy from recent external shocks, maintaining macroeconomic stability, and providing financing from multilateral and bilateral partners. The immediate efforts of the authorities in providing will prove helpful.