Shehbaz Government Enters IMF Program for the Third Time in Two Years: Advisor Muzamil Aslam
Advisor to the Finance Ministry of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muzamil Aslam, has stated that the Shehbaz government is entering the IMF program for the third time in two years.
Reacting to the IMF program, Muzamil Aslam said that Pakistan has been continuously part of the IMF program since 1959, having obtained 24 IMF programs so far. Out of these 24 programs, 7 were acquired during military governments.
He further noted that 17 programs were secured by political governments, while the founding PTI government only acquired one program, and even then, only half of the amount was taken as a loan. The highest number of loan programs have been obtained by the PDM government in 16 months.
Muzamil Aslam mentioned that the Shehbaz Sharif government has entered the IMF program three times in two years, questioning whether Shehbaz Sharif’s claim that this will be the last program is correct. He expressed that the IMF’s new estimates are highly disappointing.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Advisor stated that the IMF has forecast GDP to decrease from 3.5% to 3.2%. With the IMF package, the current account deficit is expected to rise from 0.9% to 1.2%, and foreign exchange reserves will decline from $13.3 billion to $12.8 billion.
He further stated that the government’s general GDP debt could increase from 69.2% to 71.4%, while public and publicly guaranteed debt could rise from 73% to 75.1% of the overall size of the economy.
