IMF officials meet PPP’s economic team on bailout deal

ISLAMABAD: The officials of International Monetary Fund (IMF) held a meeting with economic team of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), seeking assurance of their support for ‘key objectives’ under the new $3 billion Standby Agreement with Pakistan, ARY News reported on Friday.

According to details, the IMF officials held a meeting with Naveed Qamar and Saleem Mandiwala – PPP’s economic team – to seek assurance on the bailout deal.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed $3 billion Standby Agreement – reached between the global lender and the government of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the PPP extended its support for program in the ‘wider interest of the country’.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that IMF was seeking the support of major political parties, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), for a recently announced $3 billion bailout programme.

The IMF’s resident representative Esther Perez Ruiz said in a statement that the meetings with political parties were to “seek assurances of their support for the key objectives and policies under a new IMF-supported program ahead of the approaching national elections.”

The new bailout program, a nine-month stand-by arrangement, is going to be taken up by the lender’s board on July 12.

Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have recently struck a staff-level agreement for the provision of $3 billion for nine months as a bailout package under a stand-by arrangement (SBA). The agreement replaced the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) which Pakistan entered in 2019 and which was expired on June 30.

The SBA is a bail-out package for offering emergency relief to strengthen Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves.