Pakistan, IMF likely to hold talks for staff-level agreement tonight

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are likely to hold talks to reach a staff-level agreement under the Extended Fund Facility Arrangement, tonight, ARY News reported, citing well-informed sources.

Sources within the Finance Ministry said talks with the IMF can be held online tonight, in which Pakistani officials will brief the fund about so far actions taken by Islamabad for the revival of the economy.

The IMF fund would be briefed that subsidy on the fuel has been completely taken back by the federal government, the sources said and added Pakistan to soon get ‘good news’ from IMF.

Earlier, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail asserted that the increase in prices of petroleum products has nothing to do with International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) conditions.

Miftah Ismail expressed his views while briefing the federal cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. During the meeting, he rejected the notion by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) that fuel prices were increased to revive IMF programme.

The federal minister said that the global lender had not demanded to increase the fuel prices, but it was a result of global inflation.