IMF Board to finalise 5th tranche on 31st

ISLAMABAD: The Executive Board of International Monetary Fund (IMF) will meet in Washington on March 31 for an in-depth review of Pakistan’s economy and finalise the fifth disbursement of $1.2 billion (SDR766.7 million) as part of its Stand-by Arrangement (SBA) for the country.
Informed sources said that the upcoming meeting of the Fund will be the fourth review of Pakistan’s recent economic performance and the outlook for remaining last quarter of the current fiscal year. The IMF board will have before it a report prepared by the IMF mission that held discussions with Pakistani authorities in Dubai last month.

The meeting has been delayed for a few days due to late submission of the Memorandum and the Letter of Intent to IMF due to the resignation of Shaukat Tarin as finance minister. It is learnt that the Letter of Intent has now been signed by the newly-appointed adviser of finance and economic affairs, Dr Hafeez Sheikh.

IMF has so far made four disbursements till December 2009 amounting to SDR4.17 billion under the 23-month Stand-by Arrangement of SDR7.24 billion approved in November 2008. The programme envisages a tightening of fiscal and monetary policies to bring down inflation and reduce the external account deficit to more sustainable level. IMF has agreed to set a fiscal deficit target of 5.1 per cent of GDP instead of budgeted 4.9 per cent.