ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has showed satisfaction on Pakistan’s economic growth and the Fund’s executive board has nodded to approve release of $500 million tranche.
Pakistan has so far received $5 billion from the IMF under a 36-month programme supported by an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement of $6.64 billion approved in 2013.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and IMF’s mission chief for Pakistan Herald Finger will brief the media on the talks in Dubai Thursday (today). The IMF mission has cancelled its visit to Pakistan, as normally it comes to Islamabad to hold joint press conference with Finance Minister to share the details of the talks with media.
Pakistan and IMF held talks from January 26 to February 3 in Dubai for economic review of Extended Fund Facility. The government has succeeded in meeting Rs625 billion budget deficit target for first half (July to December) mainly due to massive taxation. Under the IMF conditions, Pakistan had to restrict budget deficit to Rs625 billion (2.03 per cent of the GDP) during first six months of the current fiscal year.
