November 15, 2023 (MLN): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is set to conclude its review this week, said Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the IMF, as Bloomberg reported.
“I expect an agreement of the review to come within this week,” Georgieva told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin in an interview in Singapore on Wednesday.
Pakistan's authorities are sticking to the program in a very difficult time and a deal is close, she stated.
Policy-level talks have already been wrapped up between the IMF mission and Pakistan's economic team, with a strong likelihood of a successful outcome.
The IMF mission and economic team will prepare the draft by today, with the IMF expected to depart the day after its sharing.
Georgieva said she isn’t worried about a global debt crisis but reiterated that low- and middle-income countries were vulnerable to rising borrowing costs.
To recall, the South Asian nation was on the brink of default when the IMF, being a last resort reached a Staff-Level Agreement with the Pakistani authorities on a nine-month Stand-by Arrangement (SBA) in the amount of around $3 billion.
The first installment of $1.2bn had already been released while the remaining were phased over two reviews.
Accordingly, the second installment of $700 million will be released if this review remains successful.
“The world is on edge,” Georgieva expressed. “If there is an impact on oil prices, what we did in fighting inflation is going to be partially lost and that can be a big problem.”
“At this point, we are not projecting recession. However, we are in a world of exceptional uncertainty,” she added. “Anything we can do to bring this uncertainty down is going to be healthy for the world economy.”
