Islamabad: In a major boost to the depleting reserves, the State Bank of Pakistan on Wednesday announced that it received a $1.16 billion loan tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
The development came two days after the IMF Executive Board completed the combined 7th and 8th reviews of the loan facility for Pakistan, allowing immediate disbursement of $1.1 billion to the country under the EFF.
On Wednesday, the State Bank announced that it received proceeds of $1.16 billion (the equivalent of SDR 894 million) after the IMF Executive Board completed the combined seventh and eighth reviews under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan.
“This will help improve SBP’s foreign exchange reserves and will also facilitate the realization of other planned inflows from multilateral and bilateral sources,” the central bank added.
1/2 Today, #SBP has received proceeds of USD 1.16 billion (equivalent of SDR 894 million) after the IMF Executive Board completed the combined seventh and Eight review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan.
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) August 31, 2022
The EFF was approved by the IMF Executive Board on July 3, 2019, for SDR 4,268 million (about US$6 billion at the time of approval, or 210 per cent of Pakistan’s quota).
During its Executive Board meeting on August 29, the IMF also approved the “rephasing and augmentation” of Pakistan’s access to the funds by SDR720 million ($934 million), which will bring the total access under the EFF to about $6.5 billion.
All you need to know about Pakistan, IMF loan deal
The statement by the IMF also pointed out that the disbursement “brings total purchases (money made available) for budget support under this arrangement to about $3.9 billion.”
