A top finance ministry official told Reuters on Wednesday that a formal confirmation of the refinancing would be made after the process was completed.
One of the IMF’s conditions for the release of the next tranche is assurance of external financing to fund Pakistan’s balance of payments.
Longtime ally Beijing has provided the only help Islamabad has got so far, with refinancing of $1.8 billion credited last month to Pakistan’s central bank.
In its monthly Economic Update and Outlook, the Finance Division of the government noted that Pakistan was currently confronted with shortage in external liquidity.
Islamabad has been negotiating with the IMF since early February for the release of $1.1 billion from a $6.5 billion bailout package agreed in 2019. To unlock the funding, the government has cut back on subsidies, removed an artificial cap on the exchange rate, added taxes and raised fuel prices.
“Through demand management policies, the government is trying to limit the current account deficit, which will not transfer further pressure on dwindling reserves,” read the report.
It added that inflation, which is already running above 30%, a near 50-year high, is expected to stay elevated.
The report cited market frictions caused by relative demand and supply gaps of essential items, exchange rate depreciation, and the recent upward adjustment in prices of prices of fuel as reasons behind higher inflation expectations.
Source- Hindustan Times.