Islamabad
\nWith macroeconomic factors shifting in Pakistan\u2019s favour, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that Islamabad is on track to secure a new loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) \u2014 the Washington-based lender.
\nIn an interview with The National, the finance czar said: \u201cThe fund has been very receptive in terms of agreeing to consider a larger, longer programme.\u201d
\nPakistan has made a formal request to the IMF for another bailout package in the range of $6 to $8 billion under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the possibility of augmentation through climate financing.
\nHowever, the exact size and time-frame will only be determined after evolving consensus on the major contours of the next programme in May 2024.
\nAurangzeb told the Abu Dhabi-based publication that the macroeconomic factors are shifting in its favour as it works to boost its lagging economy.
\nThe rupee has finally stabilised, he said, adding that the inflation is on track to drop to single-digit levels by the end of next year.
\nHe further said that the cash-strapped nation would need at least three years of support to carry out a reform agenda across several sectors including taxation and energy.
\nLast week, the global lender\u2019s Middle East and Central Asia director said the IMF was ready to support Pakistan and the package of reforms is now more important than the size of the new programme.
\n\u201cI think what is important at this stage is to accelerate the reforms, double down on the structure of reforms in order to provide Pakistan with its full potential of growth,\u201d Jihad Azour told a press conference on the sidelines of the IMF 2024 Spring Meetings.
\nLast month, Pakistan and the IMF struck a staff-level agreement (SLA) for the completion of the second review and release of the third tranche of $1.1 billion under the Standby Arrangement (SBA) programme.
\nAfter striking the SLA, the IMF confirmed that Pakistani authorities expressed interest in a successor medium-term Fund-supported programme to permanently resolve Pakistan\u2019s fiscal and external sustainability weaknesses, strengthening its economic recovery and laying the foundation for strong, sustainable and inclusive growth.
\nThe IMF had highlighted four major areas for signing the upcoming medium-term bailout package for Pakistan\u2019s struggling economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad With macroeconomic factors shifting in Pakistan\u2019s favour, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that Islamabad is on track to secure a new loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) \u2014 the Washington-based lender. In an interview with The National, the finance czar said: \u201cThe fund has been very receptive in terms of agreeing to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":62911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63672,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63657\/revisions\/63672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}