Govt has surrendered to IMF: PPP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) parliamentary leader in the Senate Sherry Rehman Monday expressed serious reservations after the latest 1.5 per cent hike in the State Bank's interest rate and said the step had been taken in accordance with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) demands.

“In March, they were increased by 50 basis points and just two months later, they have spiked by 150 basis points to an eight year high of 12.25 per cent,” she said while reacting to a rise in interest rate of the SBP.

Senator said the government was implementing the IMF terms before the deal was even signed on and this was also evident in the unabated increase in dollar rate which had seen the rupee plummet to Rs152 in the open market.

She said all this devaluation was going to make paying back our debt an onerous task. It appears that the government is nothing more than a silent spectator in front of the IMF. “Every step it is taking seems to be an effort to please a few. Its haphazard decisions are wrecking the economy,” she said.

Given the trends, she said, “We can expect more increase in the interest rate and inflation in the next six months. The increase in interest rate will also drive unemployment further up in the months to come and it seems like the poor people of this country are not the government’s priority at all.”

Moreover, she said it was important to note that the IMF programme will continue until the last quarter of 2022, leaving less than three quarters for the government to generate jobs. “We hope that the government has not lost track of its promises of providing 10 million jobs to the people, so far the opposite has been the case,” she regretted. She said so far all the economic indicators were flashing red.