The executive board of the International Monetary Fund will meet on April 29 to discuss the approval of $1.1 billion funding for Pakistan, the fund said on Wednesday.
The funding is the second and last tranche of a $3 billion standby arrangement with the IMF, which it secured last summer to avert a sovereign default and which runs out this month.
The South Asian nation is seeking a new long-term, larger IMF loan. Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, has said Islamabad could secure a staff-level agreement on the new program by early July.
Islamabad says it is seeking a loan over at least three years to help macroeconomic stability and execute a long-due and painful structural reforms, though Aurangzeb has declined to detail what seize of programme the country seeks.
Islamabad is yet to make a formal request, but the Fund and the government are already in discussions.
Read more
Pakistan-IMF reach $3 billion staff-level agreement, says Fund
Pakistan will repay its Chinese debt when…’ Finance minister says it all
Aurangzeb says govt to revisit NFC Award, tax provincial markets
If secured, it would be the 24th IMF bailout for Pakistan.
The $350 billion economy faces a chronic balance of payment crisis, with nearly $24 billion to repay in debt and interest over the next fiscal year - three-time more than its central bank’s foreign currency reserves.
Pakistan’s finance ministry expect the economy to grow by 2.6% in the current fiscal year ending June, while average inflation is projected to stand at 24%, down from 29.2% in fiscal year 2023/2024. Inflation soared to a record high of 38% last May.
