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Pakistan To Sign $6-8bn Agreement With IMF: Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Asad Umar has revealed that Pakistan would sign a bailout agreement with International Monetary Fund (IMF) that would be worth $6-8 billion.

Briefing the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs chaired by Faizullah Kamoka, the finance minister said the IMF finalised a bailout package for Pakistan during talks between the two sides at a recent visit by the Pakistani delegation to the United States.

Pakistan would receive funds from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank immediately following the IMF bailout, he said.

Umar said the IMF package would ease off pressure from the country’s foreign reserves.

External account pressure reduced Pakistan’s international reserves to $6.6 billion by mid-January 2019, but with short-term financing from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China, foreign reserves increased to $10.5 billion at the end of March.

The finance minister further assured that the capital market would also improve following the IMF programme.

Umar told the committee that an IMF mission will visit Islamabad during the last week of April, which is when the bailout package amount will be finalised.