Pakistan hopes to receive the last tranche of a 596 million dollar standby facility from the International Monetary Fundnext month following talks with an IMF team this week, officials said Monday.
"The IMF board will give its approval for the release of the fourth and final instalment of the SBA (standby arrangement) in September," a finance ministry official said.
But to fully stabilise its battered economy Pakistan is hoping for a much larger long-term package from international agencies, officials and analysts said.
A five-member IMF team is currently holding talks in Islamabad ahead of the release of the last 130 million dollars of the standby facility, which was agreed in November.
The deal broke a two-year drought of assistance from the IMF following the failure of the previous government of prime minister Nawaz Sharif to meet agreed targets.
Sucessful implementation of the 10-month arrangement, including reforms to boost Pakistan's tax base and stabilise the rupee among others, is key to IMF support for a much larger poverty reduction and growth facility (PRGF).
"We are now looking forward to long-term reforms and restructuring as we are very much back on track," central State Bank economic advisor Mushtaq Ali Khan told AFP.
"The SBA was meant to place us back on track and we have successfully met the targets, except revenues, set by the fund," he said.
He said more delegations would visit Islamabad to look into the country's funding requirements in the future.
"A joint World Bank-IMF mission will arrive in October this year to review long-term financial sector reforms," Khan said.
Pakistan's economy has been under severe strain since Islamabad carried out nuclear tests in May 1998 in response to similar tests by rival India.
The tests led to sanctions which pushed the Sharif government to stray from reforms set with international credit agencies.
President Pervez Musharraf, who toppled Sharif in a coup in October 1999, has introduced sweeping structural reforms to revive the economy and end its costly addiction to foreign debt. |
