UAE, Saudi Arabia: Dar says IMF seeking $3bn ‘guarantees’

ISLAMABAD: Ishaq Dar on Thursday said that Pakistan didn’t delay a single day in repayments. “We didn’t defer a day in repayments,” the finance minister said while speaking on the floor of the Senate.

“All technical discussions have been completed, an agreement nearing with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” he said.

“The IMF is demanding, what was committed during the fifth and sixth review of the bailout,” Dar said. “The lender wants guarantees of three billion dollars from the UAE and Saudi Arabia,” the finance minister told the Senate.

Pakistan’s ‘friends’: IMF wants commitments fulfilled: PM

Dar said that the foreign exchange reserves are improving. “We are trying to take the reserves to 13 billion dollars level by June,” he said.

“State Bank’s monetary policy has been free without any intervention from the government,” he said. “We have ourselves amended the state bank law. I was personally against these amendments in the law,” he added.

“By amending the law, State Bank has been made a state within state,” finance minister said. “I had opposed most of these amendments. The Ministry of Finance has now become powerless,” he further said.

“The economy has worsened from 2018 to 2023. In my five months all payments have been made, and currency reserves have reached 10 billion dollars,” he said. “The economy was destroyed during the PTI tenure,” he alleged.

“We were going to become 24th largest economy of the world in 2018, now we are at 47th number,” he said. He also suggested for concluding a charter of economy.