IMF board green-lights long-awaited $3bn loan

The Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday that its executive board had approved a $3 billion loan agreement for Pakistan, unlocking crucial funding for the troubled economy. In a statement, the IMF said its executive board green-lit the nine-month standby arrangement (SBA) in order “to support the authorities’ economic stabilisation programme”. This follows a staff-level agreement between the Fund and Pakistan announced last month, and the latest approval allows an immediate disbursement of around $1.2bn. The board approved the bailout package for the country for an amount of 2.25bn Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) — reserve funds that the institution credits to the accounts of its member nations, the IMF said in a statement. This amounts to about $3bn, or 111 per cent of Pakistan’s quota, it said. The IMF explained that the economic reform programme it signed with Pakistan “aims to support immediate efforts to stabilise the economy and guard against shocks while creating the space for social and development spending to help the people of Pakistan”.