ISLAMABAD - In a bid to revive the loan programme of International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government has expedited the process of getting written commitments from the friendly countries for providing financial assistance to Pakistan, which is last prior action of the IMF. An official informed that top government offices including the PM, foreign office and ministry of finance have expedited the efforts of getting written commitments from the friendly countries including Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) for depositing amount in State Bank of Pakistan’s account. This is last condition of the IMF for reviving the much needed loan programme for Pakistan, he added. Saudi Arabia had announced to provide two billion dollars and UAE would provide one billion dollars to Pakistan.
Pakistan and IMF would sign staff level agreement after friendly countries give written commitment for providing financial assistance. “We couldn’t predict any specific date for finalisation of staff level agreement, but its matter of days now,” said the official. He further said that executive board of the fund would meet once staff level agreement is finalised.
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The government has committed to the IMF to increase the country’s foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP to $10 billion by the end of June this year. Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank have increased by $280 million to $4.598 billion following the inflow from China. The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $10.139 billion as of 17-Mar-2023. The break-up of the foreign reserves position is as foreign reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan are $4.59 billion and foreign reserves held by commercial banks are $5.540 billion. The government has received $1.7 billion inflow from Chinese commercial bank, which increased the country’s foreign exchange reserves. Pakistan and IMF have yet to reach on staff level agreement as both sides are continuously negotiating since January 31 this year. The government had met all prior actions of the IMF. The government has taken all tough decisions including increasing power and gas prices massively and imposing new taxation measures worth of Rs170 billion. In last two days, Pakistan has accepted two more conditions. The government, on the IMF demand, has imposed a surcharge of up to Rs3.23 per unit on electricity consumers across the country from July 1.
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