With enough foreign reserves to only cover about four weeks
of necessary imports, Pakistan is desperate for the IMF
agreement to disperse a $1.1 billion tranche from a $6.5 billion
bailout agreed in 2019.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad and Ariba Shahid; Editing by Robert
Birsel)
ISLAMABAD, March 24 (Reuters) - A long-awaited loan
agreement between Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) will be signed once a few remaining points, including a
proposed fuel pricing scheme, are settled, an IMF official
confirmed on Friday.
Pakistan and the IMF have been negotiating since early
February on an agreement that would release $1.1 billion to the
cash-strapped, nuclear-armed country of 220 million people.
The latest issue is a plan, announced by Prime Minister
Shehbaz Sharif last week, to charge affluent consumers more for
fuel, with the money raised used to subsidise prices for the
poor, who have been hit hard by inflation, which in February was
at its highest in 50 years.
Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik told Reuters on Thursday
that his ministry had been given six weeks to work out the
pricing plan.
But the IMF's resident representative in Pakistan, Esther
Perez Ruiz, said the government did not consult the fund about
the fuel pricing scheme.
Ruiz, in a message to Reuters, confirmed a media report that
a staff level agreement would be signed once a few remaining
points, including the fuel scheme were settled.
The petroleum and finance ministries did not immediately
respond to a request for a comment.
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