Pakistan to get $2 billion bailout from IMF

The Pakistani government is likely to receive over $2 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week under its new three-year bailout programme, media reported Tuesday.

The IMF's executive board meeting is scheduled to consider the proposed financial arrangement for Pakistan Wednesday, Xinhua reported citing sources from Pakistan's ministry of finance.

The IMF's executive board will make a decision after evaluating the Pakistani government's policies and actions required for the assistance package.

In the first phase, IMF will release around $2.2 billion from a total of $6.6 billion within 24 hours of approval to the account of the central bank of Pakistan.

In July this year, IMF and Pakistan reached an agreement for providing $6.6 billion in assistance to the latter. Pakistan has already borrowed nearly $8 billion loan from the IMF in 2008 to relieve its balance of payments.

Noted economist Naeem Bukhari said that Pakistan has already completed all requirements for this package and the IMF team would have no issue to deny the inflow.

Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar reportedly said the country would get a total of $12 billion foreign loans from the international financial institutions in the next three years.

Bukhari hoped that with the arrival of bailout package from IMF, Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves would improve and it would protect the country's currency from further depreciation against the US dollar.

"The incumbent Pakistani government will have to take stern measures to save its balance of payments from falling into further turmoil," said Bukhari.