Pakistan, IMF reach $3bn staff-level agreement
Al JazeeraJUL 2023
Though Pakistan wasted nine months trying to find an alternative to a previously agreed bailout deal, this new stand-by agreement has given the country a second chance to complete a job that should have already been done. This is just the first step to resolving the crisis, but it's vital to prevent a tragic default in the run-up to national elections by unlocking inflows from bilateral and multilateral partners.
There's plenty of evidence that the Western liberal capitalist order is crumbling, but the Pakistani political elite has decided to bow to the IMF's diktats of austerity as if there was no way out of this crisis other than a bailout that undermines the nation's sovereignty. No matter how painful it could be, Islamabad should have followed the Chinese example to revamp its economy on a truly sustainable path.