The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday expressed confidence in reaching a staff-level agreement soon with Pakistan as the nation faces one of its worst economic turmoils.
IMF Director Middle East and Central Asia Department Jihad Azour’s made the comments during a meeting with the Pakistani delegation, which is present in the United States to attend the IMF/World Bank Spring meetings.
Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar attended the meeting through Zoom from Islamabad, a statement from the Finance Division said.
“Jihad Azour […] expressed his confidence that Staff Level Agreement (SLA) will be signed soon followed by the IMF Board’s approval,” the statement mentioned, which comes as a ray of hope for the struggling country.
Azour hoped that Pakistan would continue towards its progress on the reforms in various sectors and complete the programme in time and “IMF will play its positive role in bringing economic stability in Pakistan”.
Pakistan has completed all prior actions required for securing the IMF loan tranche and the only reason behind the stall in the programme is commitments from friendly countries.
The $350 billion economy is getting closer to securing the loan as Saudi Arabia has already committed $2 billion in funds, while sources said the United Arab Emirates is likely to assure the global lender that it will provide $1 billion to Pakistan by this week.
