Hafeez Shaikh flies to US to attend annual IMF/WB meeting

ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has flown to the US for attending the annual meeting of IMF/World Bank this week and on sidelines he will finalise the schedule of next IMF review mission.

Top official sources pointed out that the World Bank presented a horrifying report about Pakistan’s economy indicating the lowest real GDP growth of 2.4 percent, public debt crossing 80 percent of GDP and surge in poverty in fiscal year 2019-20 that will give negative message to international bond market amid Islamabad’s plan to launch international bonds such as Eurobond and Sukuk bond worth $3 billion next month.

It was quite interesting that Abdul Hafeez Shaikh pointed out positive points on economic front by reducing trade deficit, curtailing budget deficit and picking up of economic activities on last Saturday but the WB report resulted into evaporating all positive gains just in one go.

The next IMF review is scheduled to take place by end of the ongoing month but the IMF side is still indecisive about the venue of the proposed review meeting. Although, Pakistani authorities insist that the IMF review mission would visit Islamabad by end of the ongoing month, but the IMF had not yet granted security clearance to its staff for visiting Islamabad at a time when different religio-political parties are planning to go ahead with ‘Azadi March’.