Pakistan says close to agreement with IMF on $1 billion tranche of bailout package

Adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister on Finance, Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin (first from left) meets Managing Director of IMF Kristalina Georgieva (first from right) in U.S., on October 16, 2021. (Photo courtesy: Asad M. Khan/File)

• Islamabad reached accord with IMF for $6 billion bailout in 2019
• Five reviews of the program had been completed by March

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s finance chief said on Wednesday the country was “close” to reaching a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the release of a $1 billion tranche of a bailout package.
The three-year, $6 billion package, approved in 2019, was aimed at shoring up fragile public finances and strengthening a slowing economy. Negotiations for the release of the latest tranche started in the first week of October in Washington.
Five reviews of the program had been completed by March. The sixth is pending since June this year, which, if completed, will enable Pakistan to receive around $1 billion from the fund.
“You can take an assurance from me right now, we are very close [to an agreement],” Shaukat Tarin told reporters in Islamabad. “There are just one or two things which we are still discussing.”
He said the pending issues would be resolved in a “day or two.”
The finance chief’s comments came after media reports that talks between the Fund and Pakistan had concluded on Friday and failed.
Last week IMF Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department, Jihad Azour, said there was ‘progress’ in talks between officials from the IMF and Pakistan.