IMF announces long-awaited visit

A day after Pakistan removed the exchange rate cap giving way to over nine per cent depreciation of the rupee, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday announced fielding its staff mission to Pakistan on Jan 31 for talks on the 9th quarterly review of a funding programme pending for almost four months. “At the request of the (Pakistan) authorities, an in-person Fund mission is scheduled to visit Islamabad January 31st-February 9th to continue the discussions under the ninth Extended Fund Facility (EFF) review,” said the Fund’s resident representative in Islamabad, Esther Perez Ruiz. Pakistan formally conveyed to the IMF its willingness on Jan 19 to accept all four major conditions and requested for the mission to visit Islamabad to conclude a long-awaited agreement on the revival of the remaining $3 billion part of the programme needed to avert a sovereign default and bring markets back to normal. The Fund, however, did not yield an inch for almost a week unless Pakistan allowed a complete return to the market-based exchange rate that had been capped artificially at around Rs225 per dollar.