The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan on Tuesday touched a staff-level settlement over reforms that will lead to the issue of around $500 million in funds, the IMF and the country’s finance ministry said.
The package touches an applicable balance between assisting the economy, warranting debt sustainability and evolving organizational reform, the fund said in a statement.
“Pending approval of the Executive Board, the reviews’ completion would release around US$500 million,” the IMF stated.
Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh Finance Minister also inveterate the settlement on Twitter, saying that “overcoming the challenges created by the pandemic has required concerted effort”.
“This is a good development for Pakistan,” he furthered. In an announcement, IMF said that Pakistan’s growth under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) had been momentarily disturbed by the tremor of the pandemic.
“The Pakistani authorities remain committed to ambitious policy actions and structural reforms to strengthen economic resilience, advance sustainable growth, and achieve the EFF’s medium-term objectives,” the statement added.
Last month in January, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Reza Baqir had believed that Pakistan was in dialogs with the IMF to put the financial support programme back on track.
“We hope to have good news for the market and the world that we are putting the programme back on track,” Baqir had said.
Last year, team from the IMF and Pakistani experts extended to a settlement to surface the way for a payout of $450m in IMF funds awaiting endorsement from the international lender’s policymaking board.
Pakistan and the IMF have been working to implement IMF-supported monetary reforms, in specific tax assortment, intended toward stabilising the economy and shoring up a gaping fiscal deficit.
However the bailout programme was still unresolved, Pakistan established $1.4 billion in alternative financing from the IMF to let it to fund targeted and temporary expenditure increases intended toward containing the pandemic and qualifying its economic impact.
Specialists are including on the IMF bailout package to bolster Pakistan’s fiscal position and increase global sureness in its economy.
Pakistan touched a $6 billion IMF programme in 2019.
