The 2013 package improved Pakistan’s macroeconomic fundamentals over the three year time-frame before fiscal and monetary management started to slip again in late-2016 and 2017. The finance minister kept claiming that if at all the government had to go to the IMF it would be doing so on its own terms. However, the managing director of IMF Lagarde in a statement after meeting Prime Miniser Imran Khan had called for ‘decisive policies and a strong package of economic reforms’. That exploded the myth of repeated government claims that it would negotiate the extended loan facility by the IMF on its own terms. It has warned Pakistan of larger economic distortions and greater pain in future for seeking unconventional funding sources to avert the balance of payment crisis and little appetite for austerity and economic reforms.

Source: Pakistan Today March 05, 2019 15:49 UTC