Karachi (Web Desk/Agencies): The State Bank of Pakistan on Tuesday confirmed that it had received around US$ 1.1 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“The IMF Executive Board had completed the second review under the Stand-by Arrangement (SBA) in its meeting on 29th April 2024 and approved disbursement of SDR 828 million for Pakistan,” the SBP said in a statement.
Accordingly, the SBP had received SDR (special drawing rights) 828 million, that amounted around US$ 1.1 billion in value, in its account from the IMF, which would reflect the foreign exchange reserves for the week ending on May 3, it added.
SDRs are international reserve assets created by the IMF in 1969 and are allocated to member states to supplement existing official reserves.
Earlier on Late Monday, an official statement issued by the IMF said the executive board completed the second and final review of Pakistan’s economic reform programme supported by the SBA.
The fund and Pakistan had reached Staff Level Agreement on second and final review on March 20, 2024 for remaining $1.1 under SBA.
Pakistan’s 9-month SBA, approved by the Executive Board on July 12, 2023, successfully provided a policy anchor to address domestic and external imbalances as well as a framework for financial support from multilateral and bilateral partners, IMF said in a statement.
The IMF Executive Board in mid July 2023 had approved the Stand-by Agreement (SBA) for US$ 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 US$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.
The balance amount of $1.8 billion was to be provided after two reviews that would be held in November 2023 and February 2024. Staff level agreement on first review was made in mid-November 2023 after which the fund had transferred $700 million after approval from its executive board in January 2011.