A mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday met Pakistan’s Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb to begin negotiations on the second review of the Stand-by Arrangement (SBA), during which economic stability and improved government institutions will be discussed. The arrangement was discussed.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb welcomed the mission and expressed his commitment to work with the IMF on the reform agenda for economic growth and stability of Pakistan, a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance late on Thursday said.
Mr. Nathan Porter, Head of the IMF Mission, congratulated Muhammad Aurangzeb on his assumption of the ministry.
According to the statement, the overall macroeconomic indicators of the government, financial stability, infrastructure reforms, energy sector and governance of government-owned enterprises were also discussed in the meeting.
The Federal Finance Minister thanked the IMF for its continued support and hoped that the second review would prove fruitful.
Negotiations on the second review of the standby arrangement with the IMF will continue until March 18, 2024.
According to Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance, all ‘structural benchmarks, qualitative performance criteria and targets have been met’ for the successful completion of the IMF review.
If the final review is also successfully completed, an installment of $1.1 billion will be released to Pakistan.
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In the middle of last year, the IMF approved a standby arrangement agreement to meet Pakistan’s short-term economic needs.
Under this agreement, Pakistan was supposed to get a three billion dollar loan. Of this, Pakistan has received $1.9 billion so far and a review is yet to be done before the release of the third tranche.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has already directed his finance team headed by new Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb to start working on the expansion of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) after the expiry of the standby arrangement on April 11. .
On the other hand, a spokesperson of the fund has said that the purpose of the IMF mission is to complement Pakistan’s current standby arrangement program, which is ending in April 2024.
According to Reuters, the International Monetary Fund has said that if Islamabad applies for the Expanded Fund Facility (EFF), it will develop a medium-term program.
However, the Pakistani government has not officially disclosed how much additional funding it wants to receive through the new program, but the economic journal Bloomberg reported in February that Pakistan had requested at least $6 billion from the IMF. Planned to get a new loan.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the finance minister had said that Pakistan is willing to start discussions on another EFF during these talks.
He added that further discussions will take place at the IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington in April.
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2024-05-28 07:26:03