IMF team due in Pakistan this month to give budgetary inputs

Finance Minister Asad Umar met officials of international financial institutions during his visit to Washington DC this week. Economic experts claim Pakistan’s next budget will be made in the light of IMF inputs. (PID)

• Experts say IMF thumbprint expected all over upcoming budget document
• Revenue and fiscal targets to be decided with IMF technical team’s input

KARACHI: A technical team from the International Monetary Fund is expected in Pakistan by the end of April to ensure that the Fund’s recommendations are incorporated in the national budget due to be passed by parliament in May, an official at the Economic Advisory Commission said on Friday.
Pakistan’s finance minister Asad Umar met with officials at the International Monetary Fund in Washington this week to finalize the details of a bailout package that Pakistan hopes will help stave off a balance of payments crisis. The IMF deal comes with strict austerity conditions.
“Pakistan’s next budget would be made in the light of IMF inputs,” Dr. Ashfaque Hassan Khan, a member of the Economic Advisory Council, told Arab News on Friday. “An IMF technical team will be in Pakistan by the end of the current month to ensure that their recommendations are incorporated.”
The staff level mission will finalize the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, Khan said, referring to Pakistan’s blueprint for macroeconomic stabilization and growth. The Memorandum would then be presented to the IMF Board for final approval.
“If the coming mission is satisfied, then the recommendations will be included in the budget,” the advisory council member said.
Pakistan’s finance ministry and the IMF were not available for comment.
Khurram Hussain, the business editor of Dawn newspaper, said he believed the IMF would play a “major role” in the upcoming budget, especially if the bailout program was finalized before the budget was passed.
“If the program is finalized by end of April, then the budget presented [in parliament] in May would be within the parameters of IMF recommendations,” Hussain said.
“Revenue and fiscal targets would be decided with the IMF,” Hussain said. “The fund typically leaves expenditure targets to the government.”
On Tuesday, the IMF warned that Pakistan’s growth would fall to 2.9 percent and 2.8 percent during the current and next fiscal years respectively unless the country implemented an IMF-recommended reforms program.