ISLAMABAD
\nNegotiations between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have now entered a crucial stage. Sources in the Finance Ministry said that today would be the last round of policy-level talks between the two sides.
\nIf the talks remained successful, they informed, Pakistan would receive the second tranche of $70 million from the Fund. Sources said that the success of talks depended on the satisfaction of the international money lending organization, as it was the latter, which had to decide whether negotiations had remained productive.
\nIn the event of success of these talks, both sides would then sign a staff-level agreement. The government, on the other hand, sources disclosed, was hopeful that it would reach an agreement with the IMF. They revealed that the Fund had expressed reservations over the external financing gap.
\nFurthermore, they explained, the IMF was afraid the government would not be able to meet the tax collection target this financial year (FY). Similarly, they informed, the Fund also had questioned the SIFC. However, the government had tried to address these concerns of the IMF, they said.
\nIt was earlier reported that as the review talks between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the government were underway, it had been estimated that $2.50 billion would be saved by bringing down the current account deficit. They disclosed that this FY the deficit was expected to remain $4 billion instead of $6.5 billion.
\nSimilarly, they added, it had been estimated that the country\u2019s imports would remain $5 billion less than the target set for this year, thus causing a setback to the Federal Board of Revenue\u2019s (FBR) efforts to meet the tax collection target.
\nIn other words, sources explained, imports would stand at $54 billion against the target of $58.7 billion. They went on to say that this year the country would be able to achieve the export target of $30 billion. Furthermore, they informed, remittances would be over $30 billion this FY.
\nSources said that the government would be able to achieve 21 per cent inflation target. And last but not the least, the government was likely to achieve economic growth rate of 3.5 percent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Negotiations between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have now entered a crucial stage. Sources in the Finance Ministry said that today would be the last round of policy-level talks between the two sides. If the talks remained successful, they informed, Pakistan would receive the second tranche of $70 million from the Fund. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-368183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n