Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday said that the government was working to find a mechanism to get the full $2.6 billion in pending funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the country races against time to revive the stalled bailout program with the Washington-based lender.
The minister made the comment while Pakistan is still in talks with the IMF to finish the ninth review of the $6.5 billion Extended Fund Facility that was agreed upon in 2019 and release a $1.2 billion tranche.
The evaluation has been ongoing since October, but now that the prime minister has spoken with the IMF director several times recently, the administration is optimistic that it will be finished shortly.
Speaking on Geo News show ‘Capital Talk’, Dar expressed optimism that an agreement would be reached with the IMF for the release of the much-needed $1.2bn tranche, pointing out that a total of $2.6bn was “unspent” under the program.
“We are making efforts to ensure that Pakistan not only gets the funds from the ninth review before June 30, but a mechanism is also found to get the ‘balance’,” Dar said.
“There is roughly $2.6 billion (in disbursement) left in Pakistan’s IMF program, according to my calculations.
“In my opinion, after the budget, which includes the entire year, we have completed the 10th and 11th reviews also,” said Dar, refraining from making further details public.
With the program set to expire on June 30, Pakistan moved quickly to implement a bunch of prior conditions of the IMF program by incorporating major changes in the budget measures, reducing the gap between the inter-bank and open-market rates, and also hiked the key policy rate after an “emergency meeting” on Monday.
Dar said the interest-rate hike was also a demand of the IMF. However, a green signal from the IMF is awaited.
