Pakistan's focus on IMF deal amid rising terrorism in its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
bailout package to cash-strapped Pakistan for its economic stability. In addition, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and China also extended a lifeline of USD 2 billion, USD 1 billion, and USD 700 million respectively to the South Asian country. Despite financial help from other countries and the IMF deal, Pakistan is still under the woods and tweaking its tough financial policies on demands led by the Washington-based financial body, making it difficult for common people to survive in the crisis-hit country.
Pakistan's government has recently approved a massive hike in the electricity base rate through a circulation summary. The federal cabinet has raised the basic power tariff by ₹3 for some customers and by ₹7.5 per unit for others. The move came as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had reassured IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva that he would not tolerate an iota of violation of the agreement reached with the global lender.
The Pakistani rupee lost value to the US dollar in the interbank and open markets on Tuesday as the initial euphoria generated in the cash-strapped country by the approval and transfer of billions of dollars from the IMF and friendly countries like China, Saudi Arabia, and UAE, subsided. In total, it has imposed an additional tax burden of ₹215 billion on its citizens for the IMF deal. However, the federal government, in its latest economic report, stated that the Pakistan government’s fiscal deficit is expected to narrow in the fiscal year 2024 from the previous year’s 7.9 percent of gross domestic product.
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