IMF's delegation to visit Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: In context to the few issues that were recently raised between International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan’s government, IMF team will visit Pakistan in the end of January, ARY News reported.

IMF’s delegation is expected to visit Pakistan on January 27. The delegation of IMF will individually meet Federal Finance Minster Ishaq Dar, Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Yaseen Anwer and officials of Finance Ministry, SBP source revealed.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants the SBP to build foreign exchange reserves by increasing the monetary policy rate, however the central bank announcing the monetary policy on Friday declared to keep the rate unchanged at 10 per cent for the next two months.

Earlier, in a staff report issued in the first week of January, the IMF had noted that firm action was required to address the critically low foreign exchange reserves. Noting that the SBP must unhesitatingly use every policy tool at its disposal to boost reserves, including adjusting the policy rate, the IMF stated the SBP policies had thus far failed to give sufficient priority to the crucial challenge of rebuilding reserves.

SBP further informed that Governor SBP has received an e-mail from IMF regarding their visit; they further appreciate the financial management of SBP. The sources claimed that the upcoming visit of IMF officials is out of schedule.