Aurangzeb pins hopes on IMF deal by mid-July

He expected an IMF team to visit Islamabad by mid-May to negotiate the new expanded loan agreement

By Wajid Ali Syed

April 21, 2024

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzebs interaction with Pakistani media at the Pakistan embassy in Washington DC, US. — PID/File — Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb's interaction with Pakistani media at the Pakistan embassy in Washington DC, US. — PID/File

WASHINGTON: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb concluded his week-long trip on Saturday hoping that Pakistan could reach staff-level agreement for the next expanded loan agreement by mid-July.

Briefing media at the Pakistani embassy, the minister stressed that the economic reforms agenda had been ignored for decades and it was about time to implement it for the health of the economy.

He expected an IMF team to visit Islamabad by mid-May to negotiate the new expanded loan agreement. “The contours of the new programme will shape up later. We will start getting into granularity of the programme by mid-May,” he said.

Calling the current SBA loan programme a success, he hoped that the last tranche of 1.1 billion dollars will be released soon after the IMF executive board approves it by the end of this month. The Fund has already announced that its Executive Board is expected to meet by end April and consider Pakistan’s SBA.