Pakistan-IMF dialogues complete, economic team to share draft today

Islamabad: The negotiations between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission and the economic team have been completed and which it is expected that the economic review negotiations will be successful.

According to Finance Ministry, caretaker finance minister Shamshad Akhtar completed the policy-level dialogues with the IMF mission yesterday. The draft will be prepared by the IMF mission and the economic team today (Wednesday) and the mission should go back.

It is pertinent to note that while talking to a private news channel, the caretaker Finance Minister Dr. Shamshad Akhtar said that IMF has been assured that the government will adopt a policy of austerity in expenditure, reducing the budget deficit by reducing expenditure and they will keep the budget deficit under control by reducing expenditure.

The finance minister added that IMF has full faith in the actions of caretaker government. It has expressed satisfaction on the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) and development spending. The public will not be burdened, the tax target will remain settled at Rs9415 billion.