Pakistan’s Finance Minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, has said Islamabad could secure a staff-level agreement on the new program by early July.
Islamabad says it is seeking a loan over at least three years to help achieve macroeconomic stability and execute long-overdue and painful structural reforms, though Aurangzeb has declined to detail what seize of programme the country seeks.
Islamabad is yet to make a formal request, but the Fund and the government are already in discussions.
If secured, it would be Pakistan’s 24th IMF bailout.
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The US$350 billion economy faces a chronic balance of payments crisis, with nearly US$24 billion to repay in debt and interest over the next fiscal year, three-times more than its central bank’s foreign currency reserves.
Pakistan’s finance ministry expects the economy to grow by 2.6 percent in the fiscal year ending in June, while average inflation for the year is projected to stand at 24 percent, down from 29.2 percent the previous fiscal year.
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