Pakistan refuse to budge before IMF pressure on bailout package over strict conditions
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has refused to budge before IMF pressure and the strict conditions for the bailout package.
The talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) aren’t going well, according to a senior official privy of the developments.
According to a report in *Dawn, *the depth of the adjustment being sought by the IMF is way too extensive and accession to the programme is likely to be delayed.
The state of the talks with the IMF according to senior officials of the finance ministry are bleak at the present juncture.
One of the officials said there was no chance that the adjustments recommended by the IMF can be made and the demands in their present form are too sheer to be executed.
Consequently, this has put the government in a catch-22 situation, since securing an IMF bailout is critical to unlocking access to resources from multilateral lenders like the Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank and the international financial markets.
Meanwhile, the authorities have received a lifeline in the form of bilateral support from Saudi Arabia and a commitment from UAE of another $3 billion deposit to be parked in the central bank “in the coming days.”
