SBP Chief confident that IMF to revive $6bln loan programme

KARACHI, January 27: Dr Reza Baqir, Governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), is confident that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will revive the $6 billion loan programme as Pakistan has fulfilled all ‘preconditions’. In a media interview he said: “We are confident it (IMF Program) will revive as some of the key measures recently taken by the government have been in the direction to fulfill the IMF’s prior actions”.
He further said that Pakistan is also tapping international capital markets and then also hoping that other multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and ADB will also resume their financing operations for Pakistan.
To a question related to risks to GDP growth, Governor SBP said that key risk on the domestic front is rising cases of Omicron. However, he was confident that Pakistan would tackle this wave successfully like previous waves. On the external front, he identified three risks including uncertain oil prices, faster than anticipated adjustment of global interest rates and geopolitical situation in Europe. If oil prices continue to rise and rise steeply that will be a major risk for Pakistan like other oil-importing Continued on page 7
Continued from front page emerging markets, he said.
Talking on amendments to the SBP Act, he clarified that this is not the first time that State Bank’s Act is being amended. It was also amended in 2015 and 2012, he mentioned.
He further said that each time the purpose of the amendment was to give more operational autonomy to the central bank. The current amendment will provide clarity to goals of the central bank and these goals have been defined as price stability, financial stability and supporting growth. Second key measure is to improve and strengthen the accountability of SBP, he added.-NNI