IMF to review Pakistani budget in floods aftermath

ISLAMABAD - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said it has called a meeting to review Pakistan’s budgetary and economic prospects in the aftermath of the floods that have devastated the country’s infrastructure.

Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh is to head the Pakistani delegation in the talks with IMF officials that scheduled to take place in Washington Monday.

“The floods which have hit Pakistan in recent weeks and brought suffering to millions of people will also pose a massive economic challenge to the people and government of Pakistan,” Masood Ahmed, IMF director for the Middle East and Central Asia, said in a statement.

“The scale of the tragedy means that the country’s budget and macroeconomic prospects, which are being supported by an IMF-financed program, will also need to be reviewed,” he added.

The sides will discuss possible amendments to a $10-billion programme that started in 2008. Pakistan has said the reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure and the rehabilitation of over 15 million affected people would cost billions of additional dollars.

The floods that were triggered in late July by heavy monsoon rains in the northern region have swept across the country, swelling the rivers and submerging hundreds of villages.

The United Nations have requested $460 million to assist the millions in urgent need, as the World Health Organisation warned of threats to the survivors posed by acute diarrhoea, measles, malaria and acute respiratory infections and other diseases.

Pakistani news channel Duniya reported Sunday that at least nine people had died of the water-borne disease gastroenteritis in various parts of the country.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was to hold a meeting Tuesday to review the prevailing health situation and measures to prevent disease outbreaks. The meeting was to be attended by UN officials and representatives of international partners.