Islamabad March 13 2024: Pakistan talks for the second review of Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) with International Monetary Fund (IMF) is scheduled from 14th to 18th March 2024 in Islamabad, according to statement issued by Ministry of Finance.
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 staff level agreement is expected after this appraisal.
Once Staff level agreement is reached, final tranche of USD 1.1 billion will be disbursed USD 1.1 billion will be disbursed following the approval of Executive Board of IMF.
It is pertinent to mention here that the International Monetary Fund (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 USD 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 USD1.2 billion to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) out of total USD 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 USD 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.
