Islamabad (Web Desk/Agencies): The second and final review of Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is scheduled from March 14 to 18 in Islamabad, finance ministry said on Wednesday.
According to press statement issued by the ministry, Pakistan has met all structural benchmarks, qualitative performance criteria and indicative targets for successful completion of the IMF review.
This would be final review of SBA which is expected to be followed by staff level agreement after this appraisal, the statement added.
Once Staff level agreement is reached, final tranche of $1.1 billion will be disbursed, following the approval of IMF Executive Board.
It is pertinent to mention that the IMF Executive Board in mid July 2023 had approved the Stand-by Agreement (SBA) for $3 billion for Pakistan.
The staff level agreement on SBA amounting SDR2,250 million (about $3 billion or 111 percent of Pakistan’s IMF quota) was reached during the last week of June after IMF staff team led by Nathan Porter held in person and virtual meetings with the Pakistani authorities to discuss a new financing engagement for Pakistan under the arrangement.
On July 13, the fund transferred $1.2 billion to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) out of total $3 billion under the agreement that was approved by the IMF board the previous day.
Later, the first successful review was done in mid November 2023, following which Pakistan was provided $700 million after approval from the Fund’s Executive Board.
The agreement supports the authorities’ commitment to advance the planned fiscal consolidation, accelerate cost-reducing reforms in the energy sector, complete the return to a market-determined exchange rate, and pursue state-owned enterprise and governance reforms to attract investment and support job creation, while continuing to strengthen social assistance.
