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- January 13, 2024
- Kainat Shakeel
- 0
ISLAMABAD: On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Executive Board concluded the initial assessment of Pakistan’s economic reform initiative, backed by its Stand-By Arrangement (SBA).
According to a news release from the Finance Ministry, “the Board’s approval allows for an immediate disbursement of SDR 528 million (roughly US$ 700 million), bringing the total disbursements under the SBA to US$ 1.9 billion.”
The agreement between the Fund and Pakistan on November 15, 2023, at the staff level, highlighting the country’s commitment to enacting significant reforms, led to the IMF’s approval. The Stand-by Agreement (SBA) for US$ 3 billion for Pakistan was previously authorized by the IMF Executive Board in mid-July 2023.
After in-person and virtual meetings between the IMF staff team led by Nathan Porter and the Pakistani authorities to discuss a new financing engagement for the country under the arrangement, a staff-level agreement on SBA amounting to SDR 2,250 million (about $3 billion or 111 percent of Pakistan’s IMF quota) was reached during the last week of June 2023.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) received a transfer of US$1.2 billion from the Fund on July 13, 2023, out of the $3 billion total agreed upon. After two reviews, the remaining $1.8 billion was to be given; the first review took place in November 2023, and the second is set for February 2024.