WASHINGTON: Finance Minis­ter Ishaq Dar will find a receptive audience at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) when he joins their annual meetings on Wednesday.

The IMF has approved $77 billion in financing facilities for 10 troubled economies, including Pakistan’s, since the start of the Ukraine war on Feb 24, a London-based research firm, Tellimer reported.

The annual meetings that started on Monday, include talks on a number of emerging markets squeezed by rising inflation, borrowing costs and the global economic crunch.

Pakistan faces most of these challenges. Last week, credit rating agency Moody’s downgraded Pakistan’s rating to Caa1 from B3 due to increased risks to debt sustainability after the floods.

Last week, the World Bank rep­orted that Pakistan’s economy could grow by only 2 per cent in the current fiscal year ending June 2023.

Before leaving for Washington for the meetings, the finance minister told reporters in Islamabad on Monday that Pakistan will not seek debt restructuring from Paris Club creditor nations and it “will fulfill all sovereign [debt] commitments”.

The World Bank Group president warned at an opening meeting that currency depreciation was pushing up the debt levels for countries like Pakistan, making them “more and more burdensome.”

IMF MD Krista­lina Georgieva described climate change as the overarching priority this week as economic policy makers from aro­und the world gathered in Wash­ington for the annual meetings.

“We cannot survive the unabated climate crisis. So, mobilizing today, for a more resilient tomorrow is exactly what we should do,” she said.

“That will be a major conduit for the world putting money into the climate space, because one of the big challenges has been to have projects that are really impactful,” Ms Georgieva added.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2022