ISLAMABAD: International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday to resolve policy differences at the IMF staff level, triggering yet another round of negotiations in Islamabad on an urgent basis.
The meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Kristalina Georgieva took place on the sidelines of the New Global Financial Pact summit in Paris, France.
The only big positive outcome of the meeting in Paris was that the negotiators in Islamabad started again talking with the IMF staff to minimise the differences, a local media outlet reported.
IMF head not ready to immediately concede
The IMF managing director Georgieva did not immediately concede to PM Shehbaz’s demand for a board meeting date for the approval of the ninth review and the release of the 3rd last loan tranche of 1.2 billion dollars. Instead, she emphasised that all the policy issues should be resolved at the IMF staff level.
Both sides again discussed all the outstanding matters and the government reportedly appeared accepting the international lender agency’s views on a few budgetary numbers. Another round of discussions would take place soon in this regard.
The PM Sharif’s meeting with the IMF head took place a week before the expiry of the ongoing four-year long programme ending on 30 June.
