Country repays $147 million to IMF

$1b is the amount Pakistan has to repay the IMF in the remaining months of the current fiscal year. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Pakistan paid the 27th instalment on Tuesday under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Standby Agreement (SBA), amounting to $147 million, according to a spokesman for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

With the repayment of the fresh instalment, the country has repaid the IMF $6.544 billion since July 2011, of which $5.660 billion was returned under the SBA only, he added.

Foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP stood at $3.1 billion on January 31, according to latest data released by the central bank.

Pakistan has to pay about $1 billion to the IMF in the remaining months of the current fiscal year. This is significantly less than the payments the country made to the IMF in the first half of the fiscal year, which stood at almost $2 billion.

The depleting foreign exchange reserves of the country can only be checked if it receives foreign exchange inflows in two more IMF tranches amounting to $550 million each, apart from approximately $1 billion from the auction of next generation mobile spectrum licences.

In addition, the government also expects inflows of $800 million from Etisalat which, if realised, will strengthen the foreign exchange position