IMF director says mission to visit Pakistan at the end of this month to make first review.
WASHINGTON:(UrduPoint/ Pakistan Point News-21th Oct, 2019) Pakistan has been asked by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for structural reforms that would lead it towards more competitive economy, the reports said.
According to the details, IMF's middle East and Central Asia Region Director Jihad Azour advised the Federal government to s stregthen cooperation at the federal and provincaial levels to meet the economic challenges, urgiing the authoriteis to to address its longstanding issues through structural reforms and strengthening of institutions through legal framework.
He made these demandns while talking a conference held in the US. The reports said that Azour did not give any ressponse to a question about timing of the bond launch when he was asked about the current zero-interest rate environment in the capital markets provided an opportunity to Pakistan to get $ 3 billion to $ 4 billion bonds, both Islamic and Eurobond. energy sector and also strengthen institutions providing the right legal framework for the Central Bank for the power sector as well as other entities”. Azour said that Pakistan should address the legacies in Energey sector, making it clear that reform agenda which is now in Pakistan was approved and supported by the IMP was a good chance for the country to improve macroeconomic stability, address some of the imbalances that the country saw in the past few years, allow the economy to be more competitive, and improve its creditworthiness.
An IMF mission, he said, would visit Islamabad by the end of the month for the first review. "The progress that has been made so far is goinng to the right direction," said Azour adding that " Giviing full assessment at this stage may be too early, because we need to wait for the mission to go their and make its first review,". The IMF director said that it seemed that the thing were moving to the right direction. Under this programme, the journey of improvement had two important tracks: first is about Macro-stabilisation and the second is about Structural Reforms to allow economy to be more competitive. He further stated this agenda for Pakistan would help it accelerate its growth and provide the right framework for the private sector to operate.
It may be mentioned here that a delegation led by Advisor to PM on Finance Hafeez Sheikh is visiting the US where they met with the high officials of International Monetary Fund and the officials of World Bank regarding the current economic agenda.
