ISLAMABAD, Jan 8 (Reuters) – An Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF) delegation will meet Pakistan’s finance minister on the sidelines of a convention in Geneva starting on Jan. 9, a spokesperson of the lender mentioned on Sunday, as Pakistan struggles to restart its bailout programme.
The lender is but to approve the discharge of $1.1 billion initially resulting from be disbursed in November final yr, leaving Pakistan with solely sufficient international alternate reserves to cowl one month’s imports.
“The IMF delegation is predicted to fulfill with Finance Minister (Ishaq) Dar on the sidelines of the Geneva convention to debate excellent points and the trail ahead,” a spokesperson of the IMF mentioned in a message to Reuters.
The convention in Geneva, co-hosted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and United Nations Secretary Basic Antonio Guterres, will look to assemble worldwide assist for the nation within the aftermath of devastating floods final yr.
The floods killed a minimum of 1,700 folks and precipitated billions of {dollars} of harm to vital infrastructure.
A plan laying out a timeline and the financing of the rebuilding effort has been a sticking level in talks to clear the ninth evaluate that can launch $1.1 billion in IMF funds and unlock different worldwide funding too.
Dar has been vital of the IMF these days, publicly saying that the lender was appearing “abnormally” in its dealings with Pakistan, which entered the $7 billion bailout programme in 2019.
The IMF spokesperson additionally mentioned its Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva had a “constructive name” with Sharif concerning the Geneva convention and supported Pakistan’s efforts to rebuild.
Reporting by Gibran Peshimam; Enhancing by Simon Cameron-Moore
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