ISLAMABAD: The caretaker government on Thursday said it would hold belated and routine Article-IV consultations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by end of June, but ruled out all speculation that it was in touch with the fund for a bailout programme.

Article IV consultations are part of the IMF’s monitoring function and every country that is a member of the fund is supposed to undergo one every year. Pakistan’s last Article IV consultation report was released in June last year. Prior to that, they were released at two year intervals.

In a statement, the Ministry of Finance said the IMF monitoring under Article-IV typically in­­volved annual visits to member countries. It said the Pakistan-IMF talks under this mechanism were due in March but were postponed due to budget engagements of the then government.

“These were previously scheduled to be held in Islamabad during the month of March 2018. As the government decided to present the budget 2018-19 in May 2018; the pre-occupation of key government ministries and officials in budget-making exercise delayed the process”, the statement said.

‘Contacts with Fund only for setting up routine Article IV consultations’

Article IV consultations are now likely to take place in the later part of June 2018. “These are routine consultations and do not imply entering into negotiations with IMF”, said the statement, adding the government had not yet taken a decision to go to the Fund for any bailout package.

The ministry explained that upon completion of their evaluation, the IMF staff presents a report to the Executive Board for discussion. The board’s views on the report are then transmitted to the country’s authorities which concludes the process.

The statement said it was compelled to explain the situation following statements carried by media of the former Senate Chairman Senator Mian Raza Rabbani questioning the policy decision taken by caretaker Finance Minister with regard to negotiations with the IMF.

Mr Rabbani had said the caretaker government could not take policy decisions and was there only to assist the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold free and fair elections and look after day-to-day affairs of the state.

“The former chairman has pointed towards the fact that the role of caretaker government is to assist the Election Commission of Pakistan in holding free, fair and transparent elections and to run the day to day affairs of the state”, said the finance ministry, adding the former chairman Senate may have reacted to a news article published earlier that the government has decided to continue the consultation process with the Fund which is binding under Article IV.

It said the said news item did not reflect the factual position and hence the ministry wanted to put on record that Article IV consultations (Under Articles of Agreement) with member countries are part of IMF’s overall responsibility ie to monitor the economic and financial policies of its189 member countries.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2018