KARACHI: The governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday said that Pakistan is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to re-join its programme again, but this time we will join the Fund to maintain the existing growth recovery.
Replying to a question the governor SBP said, “there is a misconception that IMF programme cuts economic growth of any country. No-one will give you money if he or any fund is not sure regarding your income and progress.” The IMF programme gives confidence to the country’s investors so that the economic growth could be improved.
The confusion is that the deficit of Pakistan was at a higher level of $19 billion while the fiscal deficit was so high when we had initiated a negotiation with the Fund in 2019, the governor said. He said our economy had crossed the recovery phase when the COVID-19 emerged in Pakistan in March 2020.
During the COVID pandemic, he said, we were in touch with the IMF team on a technical level and it also wanted to recover our economy during that period. Now, when we will sign an agreement with it, so it would be kept in mind to further strengthen our economy and its growth.
Now, our team will have to assure investors and the Fund that the country will never face previous challenges which it had overcome in the last few months.
After enhancing the electricity rates, the governor State Bank said that the inflation of the country will temporarily enhance as it has been impacting previously. He said the expected inflation of the country would be in a range of 7-9 per cent by the end of June 2021.
Regarding the Roshan Digital Accounts, Dr Murtaza Syed said that so far 76,771 accounts have been opened in the last four months under this scheme in eight different banks of Pakistan.
He said so far Pakistani has invested $362 million in these account in which $225 million have been received in Naya Pakistan Certificate schemes and Shariah-compliant etc. He further claimed that the movement of investment is increasing rapidly and in last month the country has received above $150 which is a good sign for the country’s economy.
He further said that we wanted to further enhance this momentum of the investors in future and is working to improve it.
