ISLAMABAD: Additional $2 billion loans from Saudi Arabia, World Bank and $950 million from AIIB are required for the staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Top government officials here on Sunday have expressed positive expectations in a short reply in this regard, however, the recovery of a loan of 95 million dollars from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank related to the World Bank to revive the IMF’s pending aid program. It is necessary.
Another senior Pakistani official expected a staff-level agreement with the IMF to be finalized in the next few days, but the IMF was not ready to give a specific time frame. China has already provided two loans of 1.20 billion dollars which were received in two installments of 70 million and 50 million dollars.
Two more tranches of $50 crore and $30 crore from Chinese commercial banks will be received in the coming days as the recent tension between China and the US has created difficulties for Pakistani policy makers.
In the wider interests of Pakistan, they have to maintain a delicate balance between their economy and diplomacy.
In order to obtain the next tranche of one billion dollars loan from the IMF, Pakistan has fulfilled all the conditions and taken necessary steps, including the implementation of the mini-budget, so that additional taxes of 170 billion rupees can be obtained.
Pakistan wants its foreign exchange reserves to reach $10 billion by June 2023, which is about $4 billion at present.