WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that its agreement with Pakistan would lead to a \u201cstraight away\u201d disbursement of $1.17 billion to the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an agreement on a combined seventh and eighth review of the programme… that will translate into about $1.17 billion being disbursed to Pakistan. Pretty much, straight away,\u201d IMF\u2019s Communication Director Gerry Rice said at a Thursday afternoon news briefing in Washington.<\/p>\n
He said this brought the total disbursements from the IMF to Pakistan under the ongoing program to about $4.2 billion. Answering a question about the timeframe for releasing the tranche, the IMF official said the executive board is likely to meet anywhere between three to six weeks from now.<\/p>\n
The IMF and Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement on Wednesday that they hoped would stabilise the country\u2019s economy and depreciating currency. The IMF also hoped that it would bring down high inflation and end Pakistan\u2019s political instability.<\/p>\n
The agreement \u201ccould also unlock more funding for Pakistan, which in recent weeks has neared the brink of a balance of payments crisis,\u201d Mr Rice said.<\/p>\n
The IMF official noted that this was an agreement on a combined seventh and eighth review of the programme that the Fund has with Pakistan.<\/p>\n
\u201dAnd we\u2019re hoping this will help to stabilise the economy and amongst other things help expand the social safety net to protect the most vulnerable; accelerate structural reforms; and help stabilise the macroeconomic situation in Pakistan,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201dThe announcement by the IMF will prove to be a much-needed shot in the arm for Pakistan\u2019s ailing economy,\u201d Aqdas Afzal, a Karachi-based analyst and assistant professor of economics at Habib University, told The New York Times. He noted that the sharp increase in energy prices after the invasion of Ukraine and rising commodity prices more generally had hurt the country.<\/p>\n
The newspaper noted that reviving the loan programme and getting the economy back on track \u201chave been a political litmus test for Pakistan\u2019s new prime minister.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report also highlighted the government\u2019s fear that the IMF-induced reforms could trigger \u201cpublic backlash that could hurt PML-N\u2019s chance of success in the next general elections.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that its agreement with Pakistan would lead to a \u201cstraight away\u201d disbursement of $1.17 billion to the country. \u201cIt\u2019s an agreement on a combined seventh and eighth review of the programme… that will translate into about $1.17 billion being disbursed to Pakistan. Pretty much, straight away,\u201d IMF\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[186,837,20,275],"class_list":{"0":"post-271550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-imf","9":"tag-loan","10":"tag-pakistan","11":"tag-released"},"yoast_head":"\n