AGL 40.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.02%)
AIRLINK 127.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.99 (-0.77%)
BOP 6.68 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.21%)
CNERGY 4.49 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-2.39%)
DCL 8.60 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.42%)
DFML 41.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-0.43%)
DGKC 86.71 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.15%)
FCCL 32.16 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.06%)
FFBL 64.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.72 (-1.1%)
FFL 10.29 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.39%)
HUBC 109.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.98 (-0.89%)
HUMNL 14.90 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (1.02%)
KEL 5.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.56%)
KOSM 7.40 Increased By ▲ 0.28 (3.93%)
MLCF 41.39 Decreased By ▼ -0.26 (-0.62%)
NBP 60.60 Increased By ▲ 0.51 (0.85%)
OGDC 190.00 Decreased By ▼ -4.69 (-2.41%)
PAEL 27.81 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-0.5%)
PIBTL 7.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-3.13%)
PPL 149.75 Decreased By ▼ -1.42 (-0.94%)
PRL 26.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-0.56%)
PTC 16.18 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (1.13%)
SEARL 86.02 Increased By ▲ 7.82 (10%)
TELE 7.72 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (4.47%)
TOMCL 35.58 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.25%)
TPLP 8.14 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (2.91%)
TREET 16.51 Increased By ▲ 0.62 (3.9%)
TRG 53.35 Increased By ▲ 0.59 (1.12%)
UNITY 26.28 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-1.02%)
WTL 1.26 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.79%)
BR100 9,889 Decreased By -31.1 (-0.31%)
BR30 30,611 Decreased By -140.9 (-0.46%)
KSE100 93,355 Increased By 130.9 (0.14%)
KSE30 28,931 Increased By 46 (0.16%)
Markets

Meeting IMF funding gap: One friendly country has already confirmed assurance, says Miftah

  • Finance minister says another friendly country will confirm its assurance in a day or two
Published August 4, 2022

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has said that “one friendly country” has confirmed its assurance of helping Pakistan in meeting what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) calls a funding gap, saying that an announcement will be made soon.

Miftah added another friendly country will also confirm its assurance in a day or two.

“I have conveyed this to the IMF that you can also contact these two friendly countries (for the assurance),” said Miftah in response to a question on Geo News show ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ on Wednesday night.

Miftah’s statements come as the IMF conveyed that Pakistan, with the increase in petroleum development levy (PDL), has completed the last prior action for the combined seventh and eighth review, adding that the board meeting is tentatively planned for late August once adequate financing assurances are confirmed.

Pakistan has met last prior action, says IMF after govt increases petroleum levy

The Washington-based lender wants to ensure Pakistan would manage to secure $4 billion in additional funding to ensure Islamabad does not have a financing gap after the IMF loan.

“The IMF wants our reserves to increase by $6 billion, while the country has a financing gap of $4 billion,” said Miftah. “To fund the gap, we are in contact with friendly countries, and one of them has already confirmed its assurance. The other country will also confirm in a day or two.”

Miftah said the assurances would be complete much before the IMF board meeting, which is scheduled to meet in the last week of August. It has been reported that the IMF would announce the disbursement for Pakistan, once adequate financing assurances are confirmed.

Meanwhile, commenting on the recent movement in the currency, the minister added that the rupee has strengthened “organically” due to demand-and-supply factors.

“I have reiterated on a number of occasions that the economic situation would improve in August, as July statistics showed that the trade deficit declined by 35% on a monthly basis,” said Miftah.

The minister said that the import bill has declined to $4.92 billion. “As a result of this, inflows of dollars have increased as compared to the outflow. This has resulted in the improvement of market sentiment.

“The rupee has strengthened organically without any interference of the central bank, and the local currency would remain stable and appreciate,” he said.

Pakistani rupee witnessed a massive recovery on Wednesday as the local currency registered its biggest day-on-day increase against the US dollar in absolute terms to close at 228.8, an appreciation of Rs9.58 or 4.19% against the greenback in the inter-bank market. On Thursday, the rupee continued to appreciate in early-morning trading.

“I have learnt that the demand for dollars is low whereas the supply is greater, thus we would see improvement tomorrow as well,” he added.

Comments

Comments are closed.

Mirza Aug 04, 2022 03:28pm
Excellent Mr. Mifrah, keep it up please
thumb_up Recommended (0)
Pakistani1 Aug 04, 2022 08:48pm
Got to keep imports in check and only import for productive purposes . Secondly to reduce current and non productive expenses.
thumb_up Recommended (0)
Adeel Aug 05, 2022 12:12pm
Call American under secretary.....she will helps you..... nowadays she is acting like prime minister of........
thumb_up Recommended (0)
Sadaf Nasir Aug 05, 2022 03:30pm
Yes hand over al zawahiri,give pakistani space for drone attacks,call by army chief to Joe Biden and everything happens and dollar comes ,IMF is gng to release funds too.Bravo keep linking American boots,get loans,loot the funds through corruption and leave country in a bigger mess.no real solution for Pakistans economy
thumb_up Recommended (0)