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Islamabad [Pakistan]Aug. 31 (ANI): As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approves Pakistan’s revival plan to stabilize the country’s economy, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said it was “not an end in itself”.
The Prime Minister’s remarks came after the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund on Monday approved the resumption of Pakistan’s Extended Fund (EFF) programme, which will see the country receive $1.17 billion in tranches 7 and 8.
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The prime minister tweeted that reviving the IMF program is the way to reposition Pakistan’s economy.
“The IMF-planned recovery, while vital to our economy, is not an end in itself. It provides a way to reposition our economy. We must strive to make it self-sufficient. Pakistan must be freed from economic shackles, which It can only be achieved through structural reforms,” ​​he said.
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Finance Minister Miftah Ismail tweeted: “The IMF Board has approved the restart of our EFF program. We should now get the 7th and 8th tranches of $1.17 billion .”
“The board’s decision allows for immediate disbursement of SDR 894 million (about $1.1 billion), bringing the total budget-backed procurement under the arrangement to about $3.9 billion,” the IMF board’s statement was quoted by the International News Agency.
The global lender also approved an increase in the size of the loan and an extension to June 2023, according to the publication.
According to media reports, Pakistan has managed to secure nearly $12 billion in “loans, financing, deferred oil payments and investment commitments” from China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. This will help the cash-strapped country temporarily avoid default. .
However, according to ABC’s Voice of America (VOA), such commitments will only come into effect once the IMF board approves the package.
Experts told VOA that Pakistan’s economy is broad and deep and its geostrategic position is strong enough to avoid default.
Despite some disagreements, Washington “still supports lending through the IMF because a crisis on the Afghan border is not what the United States wants to see,” said Tamanna Salekudin, director of the South Asia Program at the U.S. Institute for Peace. (ANI)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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