Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb wants permanent macroeconomic stability in Pakistan.
Talking to Geo News on Wednesday, Aurangzeb highlighted improvements in the first quarter of 2024 including enhancements in GDP, macroeconomic stability, and a stable exchange rate.
He urged for such gains to be sustained in the long term.
He discussed plans to tackle revenue leakages, reduce expenditure in the Public Sector Development Programme through public-private partnerships, and explore untapped segments including China’s bond market to bolster revenue streams.
He said Pakistan would launch the Panda bond in the next fiscal year to tap liquidity from the Chinese market.
Aurangzeb added he was confident in the country’s ability to meet all requirements for the IMF talks starting today.
Earlier, the Finance Ministry said in a press release that Pakistan has met all Structural Benchmarks, Qualitative Performance Criteria, and Indicative Targets for the successful completion of the IMF review. This would be the final review of SBA, and staff-level agreement is expected after this appraisal.
Once Staff level agreement is reached, the final tranche of $1.1 billion will be disbursed, following the approval of the Executive Board of IMF, it added.
In the post-EFF scenario from the IMF, he added, the government would approach Middle Eastern banks and secure commercial financing and support from them to primarily help the country with the trade business, etc.
In the IMF’s post-EFF scenario, he noted that the government would seek commercial financing and support primarily from Middle Eastern banks.
