The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said it would be difficult for Pakistan to secure another bailout package from the IMF to avoid looming crisis of external payments. Pakistan had good relations with the US in 2008 when it got 7.6 billion dollars loan after two weeks of negotiations with IMF but now the situation is different, it said.
At present, our relations with the US are tense, IMF is focused on European crisis and unhappy over our failure to introduce reforms, Dr Murtaza Mughal, President PEW said.
IMF doubts Pakistan's repayment capacity; it is in no hurry to lend more to enable Pakistan to return 4.3 billion dollars in the next fiscal, he said. He said that Pakistan has already taken IMF loans exceeding quota by 200 percent while there are no plans to introduce any reforms which has frustrated IMF to a point that it has delayed visit of the mission.
Dr Murtaza Mughal said that our economic managers can paint a rosy picture of economic miracles to please masses but cannot lure IMF officials who are well aware of the situation, he added.
Finance ministry claimed that 21 percent hike in remittances to $13.5 billion reflects trust of expats in policies of the government which is not reality, in fact, they are sending more money due to rising poverty, he noted.
They know that Pakistan's current account as gap has increased to $12.6 billion compared to last year's $8.4 billion, foreign investment has nosedived by 65 percent and short-term receipts remained zero.