Islamabad: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that a staff-level agreement has been reached with Pakistani authorities on the policies and reforms needed to complete the fund’s second review for the disbursement of the IMF package – a news source reported.
The agreement will need to be approved by IMF management –
which is expected in early April. The review-completion will result in the disbursement
of USD 450 million.
While the authorities did not reveal the exact nature of the
reforms and policy changes, they did notify their agreement to providing some
breathing space to adjust to the country’s higher-than-estimated inflation
levels.
Some of the remaining issues to be addressed under the programme include a further adjustment in electricity and gas tariffs and checking the revenue shortfall.
Previously, following the completion of the staff-level
discussions, the IMF mission had reported considerable progress in terms of the
government’s commitment towards enforcing its proposed reforms and policies. Based
on this analysis, the IMF had stated that Pakistan’s macroeconomic outlook had remained
broadly as expected at the time of the first review – with economic activity having
stabilised; set on the path towards gradual recovery.
