IMF relaxes Pakistan’s budget deficit target

 IMF 

The International Monetary Fund announced on Monday a preliminary agreement to raise the budget deficit target Pakistan must meet to take advantage of international aid.Following a meeting with Pakistani authorities in Dubai over the past week to discuss the IMF’s $7.6 billion standby agreement with the country, the IMF agreed to raise the deficit target for fiscal year 2009-2010 to 4.6 per cent of gross domestic product from 3.4 per cent.‘The slowing economy, additional donor support and the need to protect priority expenditures call for a relaxation of the fiscal deficit target for 2009/10,’ the IMF said in a statement issued in Washington after its mission returned from the region.Shaukat Tarin, the prime minister’s financial adviser, held two rounds of meetings with IMF and World Bank officials over the past two weeks.President Asif Ali Zardari too met senior IMF and World Bank officials in Washington last week, discussing various measures to help stabilise economy.President Zardari and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai also held a joint meeting with the World Bank president and agreed to expedite efforts to promote electricity trade between South and Central Asian regions.