WASHINGTON: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund due to meet on Friday (June 26) is expected to grant approval to the next tranche of $506 million for Pakistan under the 36-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
Pakistan achieved the staff-level agreement with the IMF in May after the successful completion of the 7th review of the loan held in Dubai and Islamabad.
A statement issued after the staff-level meeting said that Pakistan had met all performance criteria. The release of next tranche will further boost Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves.
IMF has said that Pakistan’s economy is continuing to gradually improve, helped by macroeconomic stability, lower oil prices and robust remittances.
The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has stabilized the country’s economy which was facing a serious crisis when he took over after winning elections in June, 2013. The improvement in the economy has boosted investors confidence.
Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has upgraded Pakistan’s credit rating and economic outlook to positive from stable. S&P has also revised its 2015-2017 average real GDP growth projection for Pakistan to 4.6 percent from 3.8% earlier.
The Japan External Trade Organization, JETRO, has also declared Pakistan second in terms of business growth, which Goldman Sach’s Jim Neil has forecast that Pakistan would be 18th largest economy by 3050.
As a result of successful economic policies, Pakistan’s economy grew by 4.14 percent in the previous financial year which was the highest during the last six years.
During a recent visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Pakistan, both the countries signed $45 billion worth of investment agreements in Pakistan, most of which are with regard to the Pakistan-China economic corridor.
Moody’s Investors Services has declared China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as “credit positive” for the country because “it will spur investment activity, boost bilateral trade flows and help ease the country’s growing energy shortages”.
