Despite the depressive economic situation of the country, the government is all set to repay $783 million as the second installment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) next month.
Pakistan had already repaid $417 million as first installment to the IMF in the last week of February. An official who wished not to be named said the government would pay back a total amount of $1.2 billion to IMF during the current fiscal year, of which the first installment of $417 million had been paid back while the second installment of $783 million would be repaid by June 30 from foreign currency reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
According to the repayment schedule agreed between Pakistan and IMF, Pakistan will repay $7.6 billion to the IMF by the end of fiscal year 2014-15.
The $11.3 billion SBA program had expired on September 30, 2011 and the last two tranches of $3.7 billion could not be paid to Pakistan by the IMF following Islamabad’s failure to pursue key reforms as well as the emergence of the revenue figures fiasco. The foreign exchange reserves stood at $16.645 billion by the week ending on February 17, of which $7.6 billion were loans obtained from the IMF under the existing SBA program. Pakistan had entered into a $11.3 billion programme with the IMF in 2008 and got disbursements of about $7.6 billion, but failed to get the remaining $3.7 billion due to slippages in performance criteria, leading to suspension of the programme in May 2010.
