IMF deal ‘in progress’, UAE confirms $1bn support

Finance and Revenue Minister Senator Ishaq Dar said on Friday that the UAE authorities have confirmed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) a $1 billion bilateral support to Pakistan.

“The UAE authorities have confirmed to the IMF that they have provided $1 billion in bilateral support to Pakistan,” he said in a tweet on his official Twitter account.

“The State Bank of Pakistan is now providing the necessary documentation for the withdrawal of the said deposit from the UAE authorities,” he tweeted.

Last week, the Washington-based IMF told Pakistan it had received confirmation from Saudi Arabia of an additional deposit of $2 billion.

“The IMF has indicated that it has received assurances from Riyadh,” Finance Minister of State Aisha Gaihaus Pasha told reporters in Islamabad last week.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE pledged $2 billion and $1 billion in external financing support to Pakistan, one of the final conditions Islamabad needs to reach a deal with the IMF to avoid default.

Pakistan, which has less than a month’s worth of foreign exchange reserves, is awaiting a $1.1 billion rescue package from the International Monetary Fund, which has been delayed since November due to issues related to fiscal policy adjustments.

A day earlier, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Pakistan had not yet reached the level of default.

Speaking at a news conference at the spring meeting of the Brittany Forest Agency at the IMF headquarters in Washington, Georgieva said the fund was securing the confirmation of international partners to meet Pakistan’s financing gap requirements.

Responding to a question about the looming risk of default facing Pakistan, she said: “Pakistan has not reached that level, nor will it, but the country needs a sustainable policy framework to avoid such risks”.

In the context of the current plan, the bank has been working diligently with Pakistani authorities to ensure the country has an appropriate policy framework in place to prevent reaching a point of unsustainable debt, she said.

“I hope that with everyone’s goodwill and the implementation of the agreements already reached by the Pakistani authorities, we will be able to successfully complete the current plan,” Georgieva insisted.