As cash runs out, Pakistan introduces bill to unlock IMF funds
Al JazeeraIslamabad, Pakistan – The Pakistani government has tabled a 170 billion rupee finance bill to help the cash-strapped country secure funds from the International Monetary Fund to stave off default. The reason why Pakistan and the IMF continued to debate and argue over the sticking points, said Amin, was because of “Pakistan’s own waste of time”. “You don’t need an Einstein to tell you that for a country which has exponentially more imports than its exports, its reserves are so dangerously low, why do you want to keep rupee inflated artificially?” The Pakistani rupee has dropped more than 15 percent against the United States dollar since the removal of an exchange cap opposed by the IMF in a bid to revive the bailout. “They don’t have to worry about upcoming elections or pleasing its constituents.” Pakistan first entered an IMF programme in 1958, just 11 years after independence. For Alia Moubayed, a senior official at financial firm Jefferies and its chief economist for Pakistan, the country’s history with the IMF is “undoubtedly complicated and controversial”.