Pakistan: $1.18 billion IMF bailout money to arrive by August-end

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) convened a meeting of its executive board on August 29 to approve a bailout package for cash-starved Pakistan, including disbursement of about $1.18 billion, before the close of the current month, a media report said on Saturday.

The move follows the completion of the $4 billion in bilateral financing from four friendly nations and would pave the way for immediate disbursement, expected to be in Pakistan's account before the end of working hours on August 31.

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail told Dawn that a letter of intent (LOI) was received early Friday from the lender for the revival of the programme under the staff level agreement (SLA) and memorandum of economic and fiscal policies (MEFP) signed last month.

"We are going through the LOI, would sign and send [it] back to the IMF anytime soon and look forward to (executive) board meeting later this month for approval," he said.

Sources said the executive board would meet on August 29 to take up Pakistan's case for approval of the completion of the seventh and eighth reviews of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), besides a $1 billion increase in the size of the programme to $7 billion and the extension of its tenure to August 2023.

They also said the board meeting was convened after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and China confirmed to the IMF that they had completed arrangements for $4 billion in bilateral financing to Pakistan, which was the last hitch to the bailout package after completion of all the prior actions agreed under the SLA.

The IMF board's clearance was expected to reverse continuously depleting foreign exchange reserves, strengthen the Pakistani rupee and support the balance of payments.

With an increase in petroleum development levy on oil products on July 31, the IMF had publically confirmed that Pakistan had completed all the prior actions for the revival of its programme but had linked the approval of disbursement of $1.18 billion funds by its executive board to confirmation of $4 billion additional inflows from the four friendly countries.

The finance minister had earlier claimed to have lined up $8.5 billion-$10 billion inflows from friendly countries against a financing gap of $4 billion estimated by the IMF, but at the same time blamed political turmoil in the country for steep currency depreciation and a bullish stock market.

The IMF had announced on July 13 a much-awaited staff-level agreement with Pakistan on a nine-month extension in tenor and a $1 billion increase in the size of the bailout package to $7 billion, including upfront disbursement of about $1.18 billion.

Its approval from the IMF executive board was, however, linked to a series of prior actions that the government fulfilled over the past two weeks.

The original $6 billion worth of 39-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) — agreed in 2019 provided to countries facing serious payment imbalances because of structural impediments or slow growth and an inherently weak balance-of-payments position — was to end in September this year, but only three tranches of about $3 billion could so far be disbursed as the programme suffered repeated breakdowns, according to Dawn.