By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan on Tuesday reached a staff-level agreement that reforms required for the release of around $500 million in IMF funds, suspended for about a year, had been completed.
Financial analysts say the hold-up was due to questions around fiscal and revenue reforms.
“The package strikes an appropriate balance between supporting the economy, ensuring debt sustainability and advancing structural reform,” the Fund said in a statement issued by both sides.
“Pending approval of the Executive Board, the reviews’ completion would release around US$500 million,” it said.
Agreement was also reached on a package of measures to complete further reviews of the reform programme, which should eventually amount to $6 billion and is supported by the IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
Pakistan entered an IMF programme in 2019 after the then newly elected government of Prime Minister Imran Khan refused for months to seek a bailout, and has received the first tranche, worth $450 million..
Khan later acknowledged that it had been a mistake to delay seeking the funds to stabilise the economy.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Additional Reporting by Syed Raza Hasan in Karachi; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
