October 20, 2007	Saturday	Shawwal 7, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 19: A five-member economic team will represent Pakistan at annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group to be held in Washington on Oct 20-22.

The delegation, led by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Salman Shah and comprising SBP Governor Shamshad Akhtar, secretaries of finance and economic affairs division and special secretary finance, had already left for Washington, officials said.

The boards of governors of the IMF and the World Bank meet once a year in the autumn for a two-day plenary session to discuss the work of their respective institutions. The annual meetings are preceded by the ministerial-level meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the IMF’s policy-guiding body, and the Development Committee, a joint IMF-World Bank forum.

For Pakistan, the significance of the meetings will be presentation to the executive boards a report prepared recently by the IMF staff mission on the country’s economic outlook.

The annual meetings are taking place at a time when global markets are going through a crisis of ‘sub-prime’ mortgages and resultant credit crunch. Pakistan is at the cross-roads of a political transition with the process of presidential and parliamentary elections already under way.

Continuation of the reform process, consistency in economic policies and free and fair elections and lenders’ belief were a key to sustainable macroeconomic stability and governance reforms in Pakistan.