Islamabad: Long-awaited loan agreement between Pakistan and International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be signed once few remaining points, including proposed fuel pricing scheme are settled, an IMF official confirmed. Coalition government and IMF have been negotiating since early February on an agreement that would release $ 1.1 billion to cash-strapped country of 220 million people.

Latest issue is plan, announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last week, to charge affluent consumers more for fuel, with money raised used to subsidise prices for poor, who have been hit hard by inflation, which in February was at its highest in 50 years.

Ruiz, in a message to Reuters, confirmed media report that staff-level agreement would be signed once few remaining points, including fuel schemewere settled. Petroleum and finance ministries did not immediately respond to request for comment. With enough foreign reserves to only cover about four weeks of necessary imports, Pakistan is desperate for IMF agreement to disperse $ 1.1 billion tranche from $ 6.5 billion bailout agreed upon in 2019.

Published in The Daily National Courier, March, 25 2023

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