Dar and the IMF delegation will meet outside of the Geneva conference



Ishaq Dar, the finance minister, will meet with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to "address unresolved problems" before the upcoming conference in Geneva, the lender's spokesperson announced on Sunday.


On January 9, Geneva will host the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan (Monday). The Pakistani government and the UN will share hosting duties for the event.


        Ease of borrowing

In order to assist the populace and the government following the devastation of the 2022 floods, it aspires to bring together government representatives, leaders from the public and business sectors, and members of civil society.

A representative for the IMF informed us on Sunday that on January 6, the managing director of the global lender spoke with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a "productive call."




The MD once more expressed her sorrow for those who were directly impacted by the flooding and backed Pakistan's efforts to create a more robust recovery.


A delegation from the IMF is anticipated to meet with Dar outside of the Geneva summit to talk about "outstanding concerns and the way forward," the official continued.


A delegation from the IMF would visit Pakistan in "two to three days" to complete the ninth assessment of Pakistan's $7 billion Extended Fund Facility, Prime Minister Shehbaz announced two days prior to the development (EFF).

In 2019, Pakistan signed up for a $7 billion IMF programme, which was later increased to $6 billion. It was previously delayed for two months because the PML-N-led government refused to agree to some requirements put forth by the Fund, and the issues still haven't been resolved.



According to a press release from the Prime Minister's Office on January 6, Georgieva was invited to attend the Climate Resilient Pakistan Conference in Geneva by PM Shehbaz after the premier's phone call with the IMF managing director.


She thanked the prime minister for the offer but stated that because the IMF board meetings were scheduled for January 9 and 10, she was unable to accept.

: The statement said, "The prime minister congratulated the managing director for understanding the obstacles that Pakistan has been facing and gave her the assurance that Pakistan was dedicated to successfully finishing the ongoing initiative."


               Cash Shortage

The State Bank of Pakistan's (SBP) foreign exchange reserves have dropped to an eight-year low of $5.576 billion for the week ended. This is equivalent to imports for three weeks.



Due to this decrease, the government was unable to repay its international debts without taking out new loans from allies.


Dar is still optimistic about improving the situation despite rapidly diminishing SBP reserves with projected financial assistance promised by the friendly countries, but nothing has Materialiser.

For the discharge of external debt, the SBP's foreign exchange reserves lost $245 million over the course of the week.

The most concerning issue for the cgoalition government led by the PMLN that faces a real default risk is how to service foreign debt. There have been numerous unsuccessful attempts to pick up the conversation with the IMF about releasing the following tranche.


The local currency has already been significantly under alued in comparison to the US dollar and other major currencies due to the declining reserves. The SBP's foreign exchange reserves fell by $11 billion, from $16.6 billion in January 2022 to $5.6 billion.