Staff level agreement with IMF soon: Governor SBP

ISLAMABAD: Governor State Bank of Pakistan on Wednesday informed the Senate standing committee that the staff level agreement will soon be inked with the IMF, ARY News reported.

Governor central bank Jameel Ahmed attended the hearing of the Senate standing committee on finance, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwala.

“We have reached very near for an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” central bank governor told the standing committee’s session. “The issues are being finalized with the IMF,” he said.

“Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves will reach to 4.3 billion dollars by the next weekend, while the reserves will further enhance by June 30,” Governor SBP said.

“In the last one month foreign currency reserves were enhanced by 1.5 billion dollars,” he said.

The governor briefed the senate body on the inflation, interest rate and foreign exchange reserves.

“Our government given autonomy to the State Bank but they didn’t exercise it,” Senator Mohsin Aziz said.

“The economy facing multiple external as well as internal challenges. Current Account deficit was estimated 10 billion dollars for this year. Current account deficit will remain seven bln dollars by the end of the current year,” central bank’s governor said.

“Increasing tax on luxury items to 25 pct will bring the revenue down and smuggling will be encouraged,” Senator Aziz said. “The children being used in smuggling of dollar and daily four to five million US currency being smuggled from a single border,” he added.

Governor central bank informed that the annual inflation has been estimated to remain at 26.5 percent this year.