WASHINGTON: An official IMF notification stated that the combined 7th and 8th reviews of a loan facility for Pakistan were finished on Monday by the IMF’s Executive Board, allowing the country to receive $1.1 billion right away.
The payout “brings total procurement (money made available) for financing under this framework to about $3.9 billion,” the statement noted.This Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreement, which was inked in July 2019, was intended to give Pakistan $6 billion over the course of 39 months.
The IMF board gave its approval on Monday to extending the programme to the end of June 2023.Additionally, the board authorised “rephasing and augmentation” of Pakistan’s accessibility to the funds by SDR720 million ($934 million), bringing the total availability under the EFF to approximately $6.5 billion.
The executive board also agreed to the Pakistani government’s request for a waiver from performance criterion compliance.
According to a press release from the IMF’s Washington headquarters, “the immediate goal is to continue the unwavering implementation of the recently approved budget for FY23, devotion to a market-determined rate of exchange, and pursuit of a proactive and cautious monetary policy.”
The statement said, “It is also crucial to maintain social safety expansion to safeguard the most vulnerable and speed up structural changes, particularly to enhance the functionality of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and governance.The board acknowledged that Pakistani authorities had taken significant steps to address the nation’s deteriorating fiscal and external positions as a result of accommodating policies in FY22 and fallout from the conflict in Ukraine. The board stated that these two elements “have put significant pressure on the currency and foreign reserves.”
In a statement of her own, Antoinette Sayeh, the acting chair and deputy managing director of the IMF, noted that Pakistan’s economy had been “battered by adverse environmental environments, due to knock on effects from the military conflict in Ukraine, and domestic challenges, including from stimulative policies that resulted in uneven and unbalanced growth
