The US dollar, which started the day steadily, pounced on the Pakistani rupee in intrabank trading on Wednesday amid reports that the IMF has again deferred its meeting regarding the revival of Pakistan’s loan programme, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

The greenback which lost seven paisas in the morning against the Pakistani rupee later reversed that course and was up by 28 paisas and was now trading at Rs177. The dollar closed at Rs176.72 the previous day.

This came as the much-awaited meeting of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Executive Board will now take place on February 2 for Pakistan's sixth review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), showed an updated website of the Washington-based lender.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk8zhlmow30

The calendar had earlier showed that the sixth review would be held on January 28. However, the discussion titled, 'Pakistan - 2021 Article IV Consultation, Sixth Review Under the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility, and Requests for Waivers of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria and Rephasing of Access' would now be held next week on Wednesday (February 2), according to the IMF website.

The delay comes after the IMF had earlier posted that its Executive Board would take up Pakistan's sixth review on January 28. This date itself was after Pakistan's finance ministry had requested that the meeting be moved to the end of January. Earlier, it was announced that the sixth review of the $6-billion EFF would be held on January 12.
While the IMF says that the "calendar is subject to change, and that the agenda for each meeting is typically finalized the day before the meeting", in Pakistan's case, dates have danced around ever since Pakistan and the lender reached a staff-level agreement in November last year.