IMF distances itself from $600m loan

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday distanced itself from Pakistan's decision to arrange the most expensive foreign commercial loan of $600 million and said that any such move was not linked to its requirement for securing approval for a $7 billion bailout package. "To our knowledge no commercial financing at 11% has been undertaken and if there is such it does not necessarily for the programme financing assurances," said a spokeswoman for the IMF in Islamabad. The IMF statement came days after Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance in an in-camera meeting that the government had arranged $600 million in financing at 11% interest for the IMF programme purposes.