Daily Times

Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Ishaq Dar on Friday said that UAE authorities have confirmed to International Monetary Fund (IMF) for their bilateral support of US$ one billion to Pakistan.

In a tweet on his official Twitter handle, he said, “UAE authorities have confirmed to IMF for their bilateral support of US $ One billion to Pakistan.”

“State Bank of Pakistan is now engaged for needful documentation for taking the said deposit from UAE authorities”, he tweeted.

Last week, the Washington-based Fund conveyed to Pakistan that it had received confirmation from Saudi Arabia on $2 billion in additional deposits.

“The IMF has indicated it has received the assurance from Riyadh”, State Minister for Finance Aisha Ghaus Pasha told reporters in Islamabad last week.

Saudi Arabia’s $2 billion and UAE’s $1 billion pledged in external financing support to Pakistan is one of the final conditions for an IMF deal that Islamabad needs to avert a default.

Pakistan has less than a month’s worth of foreign exchange reserves and is awaiting a bailout package of $1.1 billion from the IMF that has been delayed since November over issues related to fiscal policy adjustments.

A day earlier, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that Pakistan had not reached the default level yet.

Georgieva, while addressing a news conference on the spring meeting of Breton Wood Institutions at the Washington-based Fund headquarters, said the Fund was securing confirmation from international partners to meet the financing gap requirements of Pakistan.

In response to a question regarding the looming default risk facing Pakistan, she said: “Pakistan had not yet reached that level and it would not but the country required a sustainable policy framework to avert such risks”.

She said the lender has been working very hard with the authorities in Pakistan within the context of the current programme to make sure the country has the policy framework in place to prevent reaching the point of unsustainable debt.

“My hope is that with the goodwill of everyone, and the implementation of what has been already agreed by the Pakistan authorities, we can complete our current programme successfully,” Georgieva maintained.