ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to complete work on budget targets before arrival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team in Pakistan.
Sources said the finance ministry had directed the relevant ministries to achieve their targets before signing of the new loan deal with the IMF. The outlines of important goals set so will be shared with the IMF.
The government will also get the budget strategy paper approved by the federal cabinet before arrival of the IMF mission in Pakistan.
Sources further said the target of completing the budget working had been assigned to the economic team by the Prime Minister’s Office. The IMF Mission will give its suggestions to Finance Ministry officials on key targets.
Meanwhile, the latest economic reports have shown a positive trajectory of Pakistan’s economy with improved indicators in different sectors, especially agriculture.
According to statistics for the current fiscal year by Asian Development Bank, the State Bank and Pakistan and the Bureau of Statistics, growth rate of agriculture sector remained more than 7 percent due to bumper produce of wheat, rice, corn and cotton.
Pakistani rupee also witnessed stability against dollar and bullish trend was observed in the Pakistan Stock Exchange. Due to increase in remittances sent by the Pakistanis abroad, the current account increased by 619 million dollars.
Current account deficit decreased by 87.5 percent to 0.5 billion dollars, helping the State Bank maintain foreign exchange reserves of eight billion dollars. The Asian Development Bank foresees a significant decline in inflation rate from 25 to 15 percent by next year if the economy continues to run at the same ratio.
It merits mention that the Special Investment Facilitation Council has made major efforts at the policy level to steer the economy on the right track thus yielding positive results.
Earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had approved disbursement of $1.1 billion tranche, concluding the second bailout package in eight years. However, this successful completion has come at a steep cost, resulting in severe inflation and a decelerating economy.
The board met in Washington and completed the second review. It is learnt that all board members, except India, favoured the last installment for Pakistan.
