Pakistan’s foreign minister says he hopes the country can renegotiate a deal with the IMF in response to the surge in global food and fuel prices, as mounting political unrest piles pressure on Shehbaz Sharif’s new government.

Officials are in talks with the IMF to resume lending under a $6bn loan programme agreed in 2019 but in limbo since a dispute with the previous government over energy subsidies. Pakistan is struggling with a shortage of foreign reserves that has prompted some analysts to warn that the country is at risk of defaulting on its foreign debts.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who took over as foreign minister under Sharif last month, said the government would “abide” by the terms of the frozen IMF deal for the time being. But he hoped it could ultimately be renegotiated in light of the hardship caused by rising inflation in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.