NEW YORK - Pakistan confronts an extraordinary range of challenges because of political instability and failing economy, an influential US financial daily newspaper said Friday. "Economic unrest has undercut public confidence in the government. Food and fuel prices have soared, the rupee has weakened sharply against the dollar and investors have fled the country's stock market. Pakistan's foreign-exchange reserves have dwindled to about $9 billion, largely due to rising payments for oil imports," The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said in a dispatch from Karachi. "Pakistan has been in talks with Saudi Arabia to defer or forgive about $6 billion in oil debts, but no agreement has been announced," it said. In a research note published earlier this week, Citigroup urged Pakistan to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund to avoid defaulting on its sovereign debt. The Wall Street Journal cited a finance ministry official, Ashfaque Hasan Khan, as saying the government is not seeking financial assistance from the IMF. But said a team from the fund would be arriving in the country next Friday to consult on a "road map" for addressing Pakistan's economic problems. As the economy has slowed, it said the government have struggled to find policy prescriptions for the nation's ills. One initiative: a plan to set aside 50 billion rupees ($652 million) for cash handouts to alleviate the pain of rising food prices. Yet the government must also watch its ballooning debt, the newspaper said. Meanwhile, an IMF official says Pakistan needs a "substantial" injection of external funds if it is to improve its worsening economic situation. According to BBC, the offical, Mohsin Khan, said Pakistan had not yet requested help from the IMF, which some economists have called for, to address a growing balance of payment crisis. Stabilising Pakistan's faltering economy will be one of the main priorities for PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who is widely expected to be elected president following elections this weekend. Pakistan's public finances have deteriorated in the past 18 months amid political instability, BBC said. It seems the government is not getting its act together, said Yang-Myung Hang of Lehman Brothers, a major investment company. Growth in the economy, which performed strongly in the early years of the Musharraf era, is expected to fall to a six-year low this year.