Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has congratulated both the finance and foreign ministries spearheaded by Miftah Ismail and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari respectively, for their efforts to revive the IMF loan programme terming it a great team work, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

Taking to his Twitter handle on Thursday, PM Shehbaz wrote: “Congratulations to our Finance & Foreign Office teams led ably by Ministers Miftah Ismail & Bilawal Bhutto for their efforts in getting the IMF program revived. It was a great team work. The Agreement with the Fund has set the stage to bring country out of economic difficulties.”

https://twitter.com/CMShehbaz/status/1547466384845717506

Earlier, in the morning Finance Minister Miftah Ismail in his tweet thanked Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, fellow ministers and his finance team for their help and efforts in obtaining IMF agreement. 

He tweeted: “Pakistan and IMF have reached an agreement. We will soon receive $1.17b as the combined 7th & 8th tranche. I want to thank the PM, my fellow ministers, secretaries and especially the finance division for their help and efforts in obtaining this agreement.

https://twitter.com/MiftahIsmail/status/1547431451292905472

Pakistan badly needed the IMF programme as its foreign exchange reserves are dwindling and its currency is constantly depreciating triggering a sky-rocketing inflation in the country. The economy was provided a cushion when USD 2.3 billion from a Chinese consortium of banks had been credited to the State Bank account that helped it to avert possible default.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday said it had reached a staff-level agreement with Pakistan that would pave the way for disbursement of $1.17 billion, if approved by the IMF board, and was considering adding funds to the program.

In a statement, the IMF said its staff had reached agreement on policies under a review of its Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program that could bring total disbursements under the program to about $4.2 billion, if approved.