Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s finance minister, promised an anxious nation on Saturday that the much-delayed ninth review of the USD 7 billion IMF programme was on track, a day after he postponed his trip to Washington for the IMF and World Bank’s spring meetings. Cash-strapped In order to keep the country from going bankrupt, Pakistan and the IMF were unable to come to a staff-level agreement on the crucial USD 1.1 billion bailout package. According to analysts, the funds are a crucial component of a USD 6.5 billion bailout package that the IMF authorised in 2019 if Pakistan is to avoid defaulting on its responsibilities under external debt.
