IMF likely to relax terms

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has expressed hope that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will consider the economic hardships being faced by Pakistan in the wake of floods and soften its conditions, as the country is expected to receive $4 billion from multilateral creditors over the next couple of months. Besides, Pakistan has made foreign debt repayment of $4.6 billion so far in the current fiscal year. It, however, denied that it was supplying dollars to the inter-bank market to support the rupee, which recovered 9% (or Rs21.74) over the past 12 consecutive working days and stood at Rs217.97 to a dollar on Monday. Analysts quoted the newly appointed SBP Governor Jameel Ahmed as having made the assertion at an analyst briefing on the monetary policy. The SBP said that the IMF programme was on track and the central bank had fully complied with the (endSeptember 2022) targets and “is hopeful about a positive outcome with reconsideration of the conditions postfloods in the next review,” Arif Habib Limited economist Sana Tawfik said in a commentary after attending the analyst briefing. In the wake of floods, according to the SBP, Pakistan has received additional commitments of $4 billion with inflows expected between October and December 2022.