Cash-strapped Pakistan seeking 24th bailout, IMF confirms
IMF has confirmed that cash-strapped Pakistan is seeking a 24th medium-term bailout package for a permanent push towards longstanding structural reforms. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its end-of-mission statement on Wednesday said the cash-strapped country «expressed interest in a successor medium-term Fund-supported programme to permanently resolve Pakistan's fiscal and external sustainability weaknesses, strengthening its economic recovery, and laying the foundations for strong, sustainable, and inclusive growth», Dawn News reported.
It said the global lender's team reached a staff-level agreement with the Pakistani authorities on the second and final review of Pakistan's stabilisation programme supported by the IMF's USD 3 billion standby arrangement approved in July last year.
The statement said subject to the approval of its executive board, the staff-level agreement would enable Pakistan to access about USD 1.1 billion — 828 million special drawing rights (SDR) — by late April.
While doing so, the Fund also laid bare the broader, though well-known, conditionalities of the next programme on which «discussions are expected to start in the coming months», the statement added.
As in the past programmes, four central areas would remain under focus for reforms. The top objective of the next medium-term programme — Extended Fund Facility of about 36 to 39 months — would be strengthening public finances, including through gradual fiscal
