Higher prices of vegetable oils and the government's reluctance to lower tariffs will keep 2011 imports flat at 1.93 million tonnes from a year ago said Ikram Chaudhary, Secretary of the Pakistan Edible Oil Refiners Association.
"Consumers will live on a hand-to-mouth basis and imports need to be planned carefully," Chaudhary told Reuters from Islamabad. "The government will find it difficult to lower the import tariffs because of that deal with the IMF involves raising revenues."
The IMF loaned Pakistan $11 billion in 2008 to rescue the South Asian economy in free fall. Meeting deficit targets was set as a condition for the loan and future lending programmes.
The IMF and Pakistan agreed on a revised fiscal deficit target of 4.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2010/2011 following the summer floods that wrecked some wheat, sugar and cotton growing areas.