ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are likely toconclude talks with regard to the bailout package by April 2019.
According to sources, the ongoing talks would be concluded by the mid ofApril before the spring meetings of the World Bank Group and the IMF,scheduled to be held in Washington from April 12-14, 2019.
On the sidelines of the said meetings, IMF officials and Pakistan’s FinanceMinister Asad Umar would finalize the programme, which was being negotiatedby the two sides for the past few months, sources claimed.
“Although most of the conditions, set by IMF for the next programme, havealready been met, Pakistan seems interested in delaying the negotiationprocess till next budget as the incumbent government had arranged enoughresources to meet the balance of payment crisis,” the sources said, addingthat the balance of payment crisis in this fiscal year was almost over.
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“Despite a lack of urgency after receiving financial support from China,Saudi Arabia and UAE, the government would keep IMF engaged through talksand exchange of information/data on a regular basis,” said an officialsource at the finance ministry. Unlike the reports that the next programmewould be around $6 billion, the sources claim, it would be around $10billion.
