Pakistan repays $396 million to IMF

Islamabad makes 24th installment payment under standby agreement.

KARACHI: Pakistan paid the 24th installment on Tuesday under the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/Stand-by Agreement (SBA) facility amounting to $396 million, said the spokesperson for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

With the current installment, Pakistan has repaid the IMF $6.045 billion since July 2011, of which $5.256 billion was under the SBA facility, he added.

The current account deficit for the July-October period was $1.3 billion, as per SBP data, because of continuous retirement of external debt.

According to a statement released by the SBP on November 21, foreign exchange reserves of the central bank stood at $3.6 billion, which was the lowest in five years.

The Pakistani rupee has also been under stress due to payments to the IMF. Although the SBP has been adamant in saying that the IMF has not restricted the government from stopping the currency from sliding, the central bank has been largely unable to prevent the drastic slide.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2013.

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