IMF’s do more

It is unusual, if not unprecedented, for a prime minister to be a part of bailout talks with the IMF. But for Imran Khan, leading from the front is nothing new. His cricket career is full of instances when he had had to take the crease up the order to straighten the innings and steer the team out of trouble. With his economic team, led by Asad Umar, struggling to cut a favourable deal with the Fund despite being in talks for months, it was a situation fit enough for the skipper to take charge — but only to realise that it’s a different ball game together.

The IMF has described as ‘constructive’ the meeting between PM Imran Khan and its MD, Christine Lagarde, on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai. But the tone of a brief handout issued by the IMF suggests that the skipper’s can-do spirit — something that differentiates him from other leaders — has not succeeded in working wonders. Lagarde’s insistence on Pakistan to take ‘decisive actions’ suggests that the Fund remains inflexible over its conditions for a bailout deal. The two sides have agreed to ‘remain engaged’ to narrow down differences on policy actions needed to qualify for the bailout package being negotiated since November 2018.

That the talks have not been concluded yet also shows that the increase in power and gas tariffs that the incumbent government has made so far, and the value that the rupee has shed in recent times are not enough for the IMF to offer Pakistan a bailout package. And this means that Pakistan needs to further overburden the already hard-pressed masses. Reports claim that the government is ready to do more to satisfy the IMF, and it only differs on the timing and pace suggested by the global lender. While the government wants to spread the tough policy actions over the three-year period of the proposed package, the IMF wants some of the measures taken upfront and the remaining in the first year of the programme. Let’s see how much more the government concedes in order to clinch a deal. 

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2019.

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