The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will meet tomorrow (Wednesday) in Washington for the sixth review of Pakistan to decide the fate of the stalled $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme.
Initially adjourned for 12 January 2022, the IMF’s Executive Board rescheduled Pakistan’s case for the completion of the sixth review after the Ministry of Finance formally requested the global lender to postpone the approval of the review until either the end of January 2022 or early February.
The postponement was requested over the delayed approval of the State Bank (Amendment) Bill 2021, one of the two prior conditions for the review.
Last Friday, the government successfully managed to get the State Bank (Amendment) Bill 2021 cleared from the senate, the last hurdle in reviving the stalled programme.
According to officials of the Ministry of Finance, the implementation report on the pre-conditions prepared jointly by officials of the Ministry of Finance and IMF has been sent to the IMF.
Pakistani officials are hopeful that the IMF review board will approve the due tranche of $1 billion under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to Pakistan.
