ISLAMABAD (NY Times) — Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund have announced that they had reached a preliminary agreement on a $6 billion bailout for the country’s emaciated, debt-ridden economy, a rescue that Prime Minister Imran Khan had opposed before taking office but has since reluctantly embraced.
Officials have described Pakistan’s soaring current account deficit — a measure of the imbalance between imports and exports — as an existential crisis. The country is deep in debt to China, and its slowing economy is expected to contract even further this year.