Update on Pakistan-IMF agreement

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached a staff-level agreement on economic policies with Pakistan for a 39-month Extended Fund Arrangement (EFF) for about US$6 billion on May 12. 

Gerry Rice of the IMF's Communication Department has recently come forth shedding further light on the agreement it reached with Pakistan, in a press briefing held on  Thursday. 

Here's what Rice's statement about Pakistan says:  

"On Pakistan, there have been major developments recently of course. In fact, since I was last standing here, we've had the agreement of staff level -- at staff level with the IMF on a $6-billion three-year extended Fund facility, that's an IMF program, to support Pakistan's economic reform efforts.

So that happened on May the 12th. Just prior to that, Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, had met with Prime Minister Khan. And you know, we issued a fairly -- you know, I'm just looking at it -- we issued a fairly detailed statement at the end of that staff visit."

Rice added, "Ernesto Ramirez Rigo is the Mission Chief, and Ernesto issued a comprehensive statement. I would refer you to that, I won't get into the detail.

But the program is aimed at improving Pakistan's public finances, reducing public debt and, you know, helping Pakistan get back on the path to a sustainable, more inclusive growth, and so on."

He concluded: "We hope that the program can also create fiscal space for a substantial increase in social spending, to strengthen social protection, as well as infrastructure and other human capital development."