ISLAMABAD - Pakistan-IMF technical talks, scheduled from Wednesday in Dubai, could not start even on Thursday as Pakistani officials could not get visas, officials informed The Nation on Thursday.
The talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under Post Programme Monitoring (PPM) were scheduled from September 26 to 30, and sources said that after failure of Pakistani team to reach on time, they could turn to negotiating with the IMF officials via video link.
Sources said that Pakistan and IMF would discuss the macroeconomic framework for the ongoing financial year 2012-13 in these talks in which current account deficit of the country is forecasted to stand at $3.12 billion, trade deficit at $16.65 billion, GDP growth at 4.3 per cent and inflation rate at around 10 per cent. Talks could also focus on Islamabad's capacity to repay its foreign loans to the IMF within the ongoing financial year, they added.
According to the media reports, since the outstanding IMF loans to Pakistan have crossed the quota threshold of 200 percent, Pakistan has become liable to the Post-Programme Monitoring or continuous surveillance – even without getting a new loan.
The IMF has already conducted an Ex-Post Evaluation of the country, as Pakistan remains an exceptional-access borrower. The report of the evaluation is yet to be produced before the IMF board.