Pakistan receives USD 1.3 bn loan from IMF: Central bank

Islamabad: Pakistan has received USD 1.3 billion from the International Monetary Fund under two separate ongoing financing arrangements, the central bank said on Wednesday.

Funding was secured on Tuesday through separate International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes, split between the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), aiming to stabilise Pakistan's external payments and help it fight climate-related hazards.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the IMF had approved the disbursement of USD 1.1bn under the EFF and around USD 220 million under the RSF. This is the part of the fund agreed in September 2024 to provide USD 7 billion over a period of 37 months under EFF, while it decided to provide USD 1.4 billion under RSF. "The IMF Executive Board completed the third review under the EFF in its meeting held on May 8 and approved the disbursement of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 760 million for Pakistan," the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a post on X.


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"Furthermore, the IMF Executive Board has also approved the disbursement of the second tranche of SDR 154 million under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF)," it said.

"Accordingly, SBP has received SDR 914 million (equivalent to about USD 1.3 billion) under the EFF and RSF on May 12 from the IMF," it said. The bank noted the amount will update the country's foreign exchange reserves for the week ending May 15.

Last week, the executive board of the IMF agreed to provide Pakistan with about USD 1 billion under the EFF and about USD 210 million under the RSF. The country has so far received a USD 4.5 billion loan from the IMF against two debt packages totalling USD 8.4 billion. The IMF approval came after the government showed better performance against fiscal and monetary targets. Still, there were divergent views about the path during the second half of this fiscal year.

This provides crucial support to Pakistan, which depends on the fund to improve its foreign reserves.