The IMF Executive Board, on Feb 2, in its meeting for sixth review, approved the loan tranche of some $1 billion of its $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme for Pakistan.

Accordingly, the IMF has released the tranche and inflows amounted to $1.053 billion have been arrived in the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) account on Friday.“Following the successful completion of the 6th review of the IMF program, SBP has received the next tranche of $1.053 billion”, SBP confirmed on its Twitter account.

With the arrival of these, total disbursements under the EFF have reached $3 billion. The release of the remaining $3 billion will be subject to completion of the remaining programme reviews.

These inflows will be used to build the depleting foreign exchange reserves of the country and finance the rising current account deficit. The SBP’s foreign exchange reserves fell sharply $1.95 billion during January due to external debt servicing and other official payments.

The government is making efforts to build the depleting foreign exchange reserves of the country and raised $1 billion through auctioned Sukuk in the international market. These inflows were also received earlier this week, however, will be reflected in the next foreign exchange report of SBP to be issued on Thursday.

Cumulatively, the country has received some $ 2 billion foreign inflows during the last one week. Adding these inflows, SBP’s overall foreign exchange reserves are likely to cross $17 billion, if no major external debt or official payment will be made.

The country’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country stood at $22.085 billion as of January 28, 2022. With the arrival of these inflows, the country’s total foreign exchange reserves are also expected to cross the $24 billion mark.

The story was published in Business Recorder on January 5, 2022.