The International Monetary Fund mission gave the go-ahead yesterday for the release of the fifth tranche of $1.1 billion to Pakistan, possibly before Dec 15.
Although Islamabad has missed three performance evaluations, the IMF’s executive board will consider in December whether to release the funds.
The go-ahead was given after 11 days of discussions on the successful completion of the fourth and fifth reviews of Pakistan’s $6.6bn three years Extended Fund Facility (EFF), approved by the IMF’s executive board on Sept 4 last year.
The finance ministry claimed in a statement that the completion of the reviews was indicative of the government’s commitment to implementing structural reforms in taxation, energy, monetary and financial sectors as well as public sector enterprises.
