Pakistan, IMF to resume talks on Monday

Islamabad: Pakistan and International Monetary Fund (IMF) will resume talks  on Monday as both sides reached near to strike the agreement for revival of $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) stalled for months.

The latest reports suggested that the Fund and officials from Ministry of Finance took a three-day break in the talks for considerations n the points they could not agree on.

Both sides would resume talks on Monday after the break.

The IMF and officials from the State Bank of Pakistan held talks on Thursday and discussed the points finalised in the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies. The Fund demanded Pakistan to implement demands before reaching a staff-level agreement for the revival $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) stalled for months.

Pakistan complied with the demands of the Fund for revival of the programme.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had earlier said that the agreement would be signed with the IMF in the week commencing from March 13.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had earlier raised the monetary policy rate by 300 basis points to 20per cent – one of the pre-conditions of International Monetary Fund.

Pakistan accepted another pre-condition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the revival of $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) as the government agreed to increase electricity rates for consumers of K-Electric (KE) and agricultural community.

According to documents, the implementation of uniform tariff would increase electricity rates by an average of Rs3.21 per unit.