IMF board to approve staff-level agreement on Dec 7

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is tentatively scheduled for Dec 7 to approve the Staff-Level Agreement (SLA) with Pakistan for the first review of the $3bn Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) leading to disbursement of about $700 million on Dec 8. The IMF staff and the Pakistani authorities reached the SLA on Nov 15 in Islamabad, according to an end-of-mission statement. This will enable Pakistan to have access to SDR 528 million (around $700m). This will bring total disbursements under the nine-month $3bn SBA to almost $1.9bn. A day later, Caretaker Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar announced shelving a $1.5bn Eurobond launch because of adverse global financial conditions and committed to keep regularly adjusting electricity and gas rates to avoid further flow of circular debt. The IMF mission had called upon the authorities to return to the market-determined exchange rate and had highlighted risks that may arise because of geopolitical tensions, rise in commodity prices and difficult global financial conditions and advised the authorities to continue efforts to build resilience.