The International Monetary Fund (IMF) confirmed that the talks with Pakistan are underway on the 24th 'longer and larger' bailout programme under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), reported ARY News.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that they are ready to "engage" with Pakistan on a fresh bailout in the "coming months" to help the country resolve "fiscal and external stability challenges," reported Geo News.
The IMF Executive Director Bahador Bijani on behalf of the board has conveyed the message to Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar through a virtual contact on Thursday.
A staff-level accord to release a USD 1.1 billion tranche out of a USD 6.5 billion IMF package has been delayed since November, with nearly 100 days gone since the last staff-level mission to Pakistan.
In its weekly bulletin, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said that its foreign exchange reserves have decreased as of the week ended March 24, which will provide an import cover of less than a month.
It should be noted that Pakistan and the IMF have been negotiating since early February on an agreement that would release USD 1.1 billion to the cash-strapped, nuclear-armed country of 220 million people and its supercritical for the liquidity-challenged country, whose deficient foreign exc