IMF Board Likely to Approve $1.1 Billion Loan for Pakistan on April 29

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board is set to meet on April 29 to discuss the approval of a $1.1 billion loan for Pakistan, Reuters reported Wednesday. IMF and Pakistani authorities had reached a staff-level agreement on the second and final review under Pakistan’s 9-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) back in March. The global lender had approved the SBA for Pakistan for an amount of $3 billion in July last year with immediate disbursement of $1.1 billion. Pakistan received the second disbursement of $700 million in January this year bringing the total disbursements under the SBA to $1.9 billion. A day earlier, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said that he expects to reach a Staff-Level Agreement on a bigger loan program with the IMF by June-July 2024. Speaking at an event in Islamabad, the finance minister also unveiled his strategy to avoid any future IMF programs but only after obtaining a new large and longer 24th program. The minister also mentioned that the last loan tranche is expected to be disbursed next week, and the country is likely to secure more inflows in June, taking the foreign exchange reserves to the $10 billion level. However, despite contact between the IMF and Pakistan over a new program, the country has not made a formal request for a new program for now.