IMF backs Pakistan’s wheat buy, lets govt set stock target

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has once again allowed Pakistan to purchase wheat to replenish its depleting reserves, while leaving it to the government to determine the strategic stock level and proceed with plans to buy 6.2 million tonnes this year, an aide to the prime minister said on Monday. Ahmed Umair, the Prime Minister’s Coordinator on Agriculture, clarified that the officially announced price of Rs3,500 per 40 kilogrammes is not a fixed support price but an indicative rate linked to international market trends and subject to revision. A day earlier, the Prime Minister’s Office had stated that the federal and provincial governments would jointly procure 6.2 million tonnes of wheat at the Rs3,500 rate. Umair said the IMF had agreed to allow these purchases to rebuild the country’s wheat reserves. In September last year, the IMF had stopped the federal and provincial governments from intervening in the commodity markets. The ban on the procurements by all the ...