Page 7 - International Monetary Fund

Cash-strapped Pak makes formal request to IMF for another bailout

Pakistan has made a formal request to IMF for seeking the next bailout package in the range of USD 6 to USD 8 billion with the possibility of augmentation through climate financing, a media report said on Saturday. Cash-strapped Pakistan also requested to dispatch the International Monetary Fund (IMF) review mission next month to firm up details of the next bailout package for three years under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). However, the exact size and timeframe of the new package will only be determined after evolving consensus on the major contours of the next programme in May 2024, Geo News reported from Washington. A high-level Pakistani delegation led by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is currently visiting Washington to attend the annual spring meetings of the IMF/World Bank. Although Pakistani authorities are pitching a rosy picture of the economy, the IMF in its latest Regional Economic Outlook (REO) released by Middle East and Central Asia (ME and CA) said the ...

Role played by India during G-20 presidency appreciated at IMF meeting

During the annual Spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank there was a widespread appreciation of the role played by India during its G-20 presidency in building consensus on a range of key global issues, a top Indian official has said. India hosted the G20 Summit in New Delhi from September 9-10. The summit adopted a 37-page consensus declaration overcoming major differences on the Russia-Ukraine war and took several steps to ensure the stability of the global economy. There is a widespread appreciation of Indian presidency of the G-20 in building consensus on several issues, relevant for global deployment, conducted of various meetings during the presidency as well as the leaders' summit, Ajay Seth, Economic Affairs Secretary told PTI on Friday on the sidelines of the annual sprint meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Due to the ongoing Lok Sabha election, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is not attending the annual IMF and World Bank ...

IMF praises India for maintaining fiscal discipline in election year

For the demographic dividend to be reaped, India has to invest a lot in education and health

Ready to support cash-strapped Pak to improve its economic situation: IMF

The International Monetary Fund is ready to support cash-strapped Pakistan in key reform to help the country improve and stabilise its economic situation. Currently, Pakistan has expressed interest in a new programme in order to help the country address some of the key challenges, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the IMF told reporters here on the sidelines of the annual Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank. The current programme that was initiated ten months ago allowed Pakistan to achieve a certain number of important milestones in terms of economic stability, he said. The last review was successful and will be put forward to the board, which will end a programme that helped Pakistan address acute economic imbalances and maintain its economic stabilities, the IMF official hoped. Those measures also allowed Pakistan to increase its buffers. Currently, the authorities have expressed interest in a new programme in order to help Pakista

Climate change, war, poverty biggest challenges: World Bank's Ajay Banga

There was no shortage of stressors to the global economy when Ajay Banga took charge at the World Bank almost a year ago: inflation eating at nations drowning in debt, a once-in-a-generation pandemic, climate disasters and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Factor in the Israel-Hamas war and rising tensions between powerful nations, and today's agenda is even fuller as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund hold their spring meetings in Washington this week. The world's intertwined challenges of poverty which clearly we have seen great setbacks over the past few years combined with fragility and conflict and violence, combined with climate change, is coming into a perfect storm, Banga said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We need to put all of our efforts into this. Banga highlighted new initiatives being announced at the meetings, including plans to provide 300 million people in Africa with electricity by 2030 and 1.5 billion people worldwide with health care .

IMF's Georgieva warns of global economic concerns including inflation, debt

She said countries could help their economies by slashing bureaucratic red tape and getting more women into the job market

IMF ready to support Sri Lanka's discussions with int'l bondholders

Sri Lanka will consult with the IMF to assess if the latest proposals discussed with bondholders were within the parameters of its bailout program

Shifting expectations

No respite from US inflation and geopolitical tensions

IMF raises India's GDP growth forecast by 30 bps to 6.8% for FY25

Also sees world economy growing faster at 3.2% in 2024

President Biden's push for World Bank funds to compete with China stalls

The World Bank's two major lending arms committed a combined $72.8 billion last year, with total cumulative lending since 1945 at nearly $1.4 trillion

Pak needs up to three years for reforms suggested by IMF: Finance chief

Pakistan rebuilt trust with the IMF through the completion of its nine-month loan where an agreement was reached in March for the final disbursement, he said

Janet Yellen likely to reiterate warnings over China's manufacturing power

With its dominant voice in all of those forums, the US is expected to try to align other countries across Europe, Asia and Latin America to voice concerns over China's output and exports

IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva wins second term ahead of Spring meetings

Georgieva, 70, led IMF's efforts to aid indebted countries through pandemic and has warned about the global economic impact of trade fragmentation caused by worsening US-China relations

India's foreign exchange reserves hit fresh peak of $648.56 billion

In the current calendar year, the reserves have expanded by 23 billion so far. As of 29 December 2023, India's foreign exchange reserves amounted to $623 billion

IMF under pressure to cut billions of dollars in fees for large borrowers

The IMF released a statement last week saying that "a number" of its board members were open to reviewing policies around surcharges, the fees that it charges nations that borrow more

Subramanian's remark on 8% growth projection for India not ours, says IMF

The recent remarks of Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund, about India's growth figures does not represent the views of the IMF and were in his role as India's representative at the global body, the IMF has said. "The views conveyed ...by Mr. Subramanian were in his role as India's representative at the IMF," Julie Kozack, IMF spokesperson, told reporters here on Thursday. She was responding to a question on recent remarks by Subramanian, in which he projected a growth rate of 8 per cent for India, which is different from the last growth rate projections by the IMF. Subramanian, at a event in New Delhi on March 28, had said Indian economy could grow at 8 per cent till 2047, if the country redoubles the good policies that it has implemented over the last 10 years and accelerate reforms. "So, the basic idea is that with the kind of growth that India has registered in the last 10 years, if we can redouble the good policies that we have ...

Meeting with IMF scheduled for Apr 14-15: Pak's Finance Minister Aurangzeb

Pakistan's Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Friday said the government will hold a meeting with the IMF on April 14 and 15 in Washington to discuss the features of the new bailout programme which the cash-strapped country is seeking, according to a media report. The minister for finance and revenue in the Shehbaz Sharif government, while addressing journalists during his visit to the Pakistan Stock Exchange here, reiterated that the government plans to enter a major programme with the International Monetary Fund which will ensure microeconomic stability, Geo News reported. Aurangzeb said the features of the new programme would be discussed during the meeting, while detailed talks would be held in Pakistan, the report said. Prime Minister Shehbaz on March 21 signalled that the new IMF programme was likely to be continued for three years. Shehbaz, while addressing a session of the Special Investment Facilitation Council's apex committee attended by civil-military leadership, sa

12 people killed in 2 separate incidents in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

At least 12 people were killed in two separate incidents in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police said on Friday. Eight people of a family, including five women and two children, were killed when a pickup truck they were travelling in skidded off a mountainous road allegedly due to a brake failure in Buner district, police said. The driver purportedly lost control of the vehicle after the brake failed while navigating a sharp turn in the mountainous terrain. A rescue team along with the help of locals retrieved the bodies from the accident site, they said. In the other incident, four miners of a family were killed when a coal mine suddenly collapsed in the tribal Kurram district. A rescue team and local volunteers retrieved the bodies from the mine and shifted them to a nearby hospital. The deceased coal miners belong to the Swat district. The dead include a father and son and two brothers.

Indian economy can grow at 8% till 2047, reforms are key: IMF's Subramanian

Indian economy can grow at 8 per cent till 2047, if the country can redouble the good policies that it has implemented over the last 10 years and accelerate reforms, India's executive director at International Monetary Fund (IMF) Krishnamurthy Venkata Subramanian said on Thursday. Subramanian further said that clearly 8 per cent growth target is ambitious, because India has not grown consistently at 8 per cent before, but it is achievable. "So, the basic idea is that with the kind of growth that India has registered in the last 10 years, if we can redouble the good policies that we have implemented over the last 10 years and accelerate the reforms, then India can grow at 8 per cent from here on till 2047," he said at the Times Now Summit. India's economy grew at better-than-expected 8.4 per cent in the final three months of 2023, logging the fastest pace in the past one-and-a-half years. The growth rate in October-December helped take the estimate for the current fiscal to 7.6 per

Sri Lankan Prez Wickremesinghe instructs Cabinet to prepare for elections

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed his Cabinet to prepare for the presidential election to be held later this year, as the cash-starved nation strives to recover from its worst economic crisis. The next presidential election must be called by the elections commission by September and must be held by mid-November. The parliament election is not due before August of 2025 but President Wickremesinghe has the power to hold it anytime now by dissolving the 225-member Assembly elected in August 2020. Ending speculation, Wickremesinghe during a Cabinet meeting on Monday announced that the presidential election will be held first and instructed it to prepare for the polls, news portal Daily Mirror reported on Tuesday, quoting sources. Citing the Constitution, Wickremesinghe, 74, said the presidential election should take place first, and arrangements will be made accordingly. The election will be the first held after Sri Lanka plunged into a severe economic crisis in