Monitoring Desk:
In a major breakthrough, Pakistan and the International Monetry Fund (IMF) have agreed in principle to extend the stalled bailout program by up to one year and increase the volume of loans to $8bn.
The understanding has been reached between Finance Minister Dr. Miftah Ismail and IMF Deputy Managing Director Antoinette Sayeh in Washington, sources told The Express Tribune on Sunday.
Subject to the final modalities, the IMF has agreed that the program will be extended by another nine months to one year as against the original end period of September 2022, the sources added.
The size of the loan would be increased from the existing $6 billion to $8 billion – a net addition of $2 billion, a senior government functionary requesting anonymity said. The IMF is expected to issue a statement Monday (tomorrow) in this regard.
The previous PTI-led government and the IMF had signed a 39-month Extended Fund Facility (July 2019 to September 2022) with a total value of $6 billion. However, the previous government failed to fulfill its commitments and the program remained stalled for most of the time as $3 billion remained undisbursed.
