The IMF has approved $1.1 billion in new financing for Pakistan

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved financing for Pakistan in the amount of 1.1 billion dollars, reported US News.
The funding is the second and final tranche of a $3 billion stand-by arrangement with the IMF that Islamabad secured last summer to avert a sovereign default.
The approval came a day after Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif discussed a new loan program with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva at the World Economic Forum in Riyadh.
Islamabad is seeking a new, larger, long-term agreement with the fund after the current standby agreement expires this month.
Pakistan's Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said Islamabad could reach a staff-level agreement on the new program by early July.
Islamabad has said it wants a loan for at least 3 years to help achieve macroeconomic stability and implement long-delayed and painful structural reforms.
Aurangzeb refused to give details of the amount the country wanted.
Pakistan has not yet made a formal request, but the IMF and the government are already in talks.
If received, it will be the 24th IMF bailout for Pakistan./BGNES