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| IMF to be approached as last resort: Tareen |
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
By Mehtab Haider
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s economy requires dollar inflows to fill its financing gap in the next 30 days; otherwise, as a last resort Islamabad will have to approach the IMF for a bailout package, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tareen told The News.
In an exclusive talk with this scribe, Shaukat Tareen announced that the fiscal deficit would be curtailed to 4.3 per cent of the GDP from earlier envisaged target of 4.7 per cent of the GDP for the current fiscal year.
“We are well within the target for the first quarter (July-Sept) period in terms achieving the desired fiscal deficit target for the whole financial year 2008-09,” he added. The PPP government, he said, would make all-out efforts to avoid the IMF programme by pursuing multilateral creditors, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and others such as the DFID to provide the desired dollar inflows in the next one month period.
“We cannot wait for long as the country requires dollar inflows in order to stabilise its foreign currency reserves position as well as rupee,” he added. He said Pakistan’s resilient economy witnessed foreign currency reserves to the level of $500 million few years back and the situation was not so much grim as being portrayed by certain quarters as the country still possessed over $7.5 billion at this stage.
“We also expect that the Friends of Pakistan (FOP) forum would hold its next meeting in the UAE within the first 15 days of November in which we will get a clearer picture about the financing availability from our friends,” he added.
Answering a query about refusal of Saudi Arabia to provide oil facility on deferred payment worth $5 billion, he said he held meeting with the finance minister of Saudi Arabia in Washington on the sideline of the recently held annual meeting of the IMF/WB.
“The Saudis have not yet refused the oil facility on deferred payment to Islamabad and we are still hopeful of a positive response from their side,” he said. He said the government would move ahead on remittances securitisation without any delay.
He said he briefed the multilateral donors such as the IMF, the World Bank and the ADB in detailed about reforms undertaken by the incumbent regime after coming to power, which they did not know at their highest level before this interaction.
“All of them appreciated Islamabad’s efforts to do away with subsidies on the POL and the electricity,” Tareen said. Pakistan has made efforts to cut down its fiscal deficit to 4.3 per cent of the GDP for the current fiscal year, he said and added the government’s deficit stood at Rs165 billion for the first quarter, which is amicably within the envisaged target.
He showed the government’s resolve to reduce borrowing from the central bank in months ahead and added they would be able to bring at zero level by the end of the day. He said the government missed some targets such as the Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) was targeted to generate Rs 60 billion but it could get only Rs 37 to 40 billion. Despite these odds, he said, the government managed to keep the fiscal deficit within a certain limit in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
