Islamabad (Web Desk): Finance Minister Ishaq Dar left for the United States (US) on Tuesday.
According to details, during the visit, the finance minister will attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. He is also expected to hold direct talks with their officials.
The visit by the finance minister comes as Pakistan deals with the aftermath of the devastating floods which have affected nearly 33 million people and displaced 7.9m.
On Monday, Dar reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to complete the IMF programme with all its conditions in an honourable manner and meet all repayment obligations to multilaterals, bond holders and Paris Club creditors.
He said the ninth review with the IMF was scheduled for October 25 and ruled out any consideration for renegotiating the IMF agreement when it was in the last leg of its completion.
The finance minister also shared that Pakistan was seeking a rescheduling of bilateral debt, which now stands at around $27 billion. However, he ruled out rescheduling of international debt from wealthy western nations under Paris Club, multilaterals and international sovereign bonds.
The World Bank has forecast Pakistan’s economic growth rate at 2pc this year and warned that 2.5 to 4pc of the population or about 10m people could fall below the poverty line owing to the combined impact of devastating floods and historic inflation.