Pakistan's IMF bail: Good money after bad weather?

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Mint Redaction 2 Min Read May 20, 2025, 07:30 AM IST This is the 13th time that Pakistan has tapped the IMF for bail funds since 1991, when India last adopted a loan from the multilateral lenders. (Istockphoto) Summary The difficult conditions of the International Monetary Fund for his loan to Islamabad will probably not work without strict vigilance over the use of all its funds. Can Pakistan’s economy really be saved? The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has introduced Pakistan difficult conditions for the payment of installments of the $ 7 billion loan negotiating Islamabad under its extensive fund facility (EFF). Such IMF credits do not come so much with zealous indulgence as with tough conditions intended to stabilize macroeconomic variables. The IMF also gives Pakistan a $ 1.4 billion climate resilience. We must wish the country all the strength he can call to swallow that bitter medicine. Also read: The loan of the IMF loan in Pakistan is the matter for reforming the right to vote. Pakistan has a quarter of billion people, 40% of them under the poverty line of the World Bank for countries with lower middle income, 42% of their illiterate and multitudes apparently in an urge to distorted versions of Islam. This is the 13th time that Pakistan has used the IMF for bail funds since 1991 when India last made a loan from the multilateral money shooter. At the time, New -Delhi IMF used conditions to justify difficult decisions that opened the interests of the Vest, but opened the Indian economy to competition, both external and internal, and economic growth. The IMF did well to warn Pakistan that the continued hostility to India would damage its reputation and derailed the recovery of the eternal crisis. India’s defense minister Rajnath Singh made a good point when he said funds are going to Pakistan under any cover or for whatever purpose has the financing of terror. After all, money is swantable. Also read: Mint Quick Edit | Pakistan’s IMF bail no. 24 and loan addiction if external funds are available to stabilize Islamabad’s finance and cushion the adjustment process, as energy prices and selective state patronation are masked as industrial policies, the resources needed for such constructive endings can go elsewhere. Derivative funds can reach what the Pakistani calls deep state ‘strategic depth’ obtained by unconventional methods. The costs are mostly borne by India, which experienced relentless terrorist attacks. As a lender to Pakistan, the IMF should carefully monitor the end use of not only the funds paid under the EFF, but also of the local funds released by their infusion. If there was ever a case for supervision of extra tight, that’s it. Economic dynamics call for macro stability and the development of human capital via quality education and healthcare. These are only the necessary conditions, not sufficient. Also read: Pakistan should wake up and smell the geo-economic brew cultural attitudes towards risk and failure are essential for entrepreneurship. Through one hypothesis, Pakistan is not of social groups that are used to making money by risking it. Effective financial mediation is a difficult question all over the world, but still more difficult in a place where an important form of returns on capital – interest on debt – is seen by many by a prism of sin against virtue. Conservative values ​​keep women from the workforce. The female workforce participation for Pakistan is only 24%, far below Bangladesh’s 44%, Indonesia’s 53%and the world average of 49%. It deprives the economy of a significant part of the human effort that can be mobilized to generate value. Meanwhile, the concentration of asset ownership worsens its misery of underdevelopment and contributes to the holding of his democracy. Addressing such problems calls for an emancipatory agenda and the political will to pursue it. An IMF stabilization program is far from what is needed to transform Pakistan, but maybe it can decrease despair. And we can do with less hopelessness around us. Catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More topics #Imf #Loan #businesswomen coin specials