Pak-IMF talks for first quarterly review begin.

Byline: Imran Ali Kundi

ISLAMABAD -- Talks between Pakistan and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for first quarterly review of Islamabad's performance under its $6b Extended Fund Facility (EFF) have started on Monday.

A staff mission of the IMF led by Ernesto Ramirez-Rigo has arrived in Islamabad. The officials of ministry of finance informed that in the first stage the visiting delegation is holding technical discussions with government from all the ministries, divisions and departments concerned to examine the latest data. The technical talks would be followed by policy level before conclusion of talks on November 7.

The IMF in July this year had approved a three-year, $6 billion loan to support Pakistan's economic plan. Pakistan had already received an upfront disbursement of $991 million on completion of all prior actions committed by Pakistan before signing the fund programme.

The IMF had linked the remaining tranches with the economic performance in each quarter. 'We hope that Pakistan will receive the next IMF tranche worth of around $450 million as the government had performed well on economic front during first quarter of the current fiscal year,' said an official of the ministry of finance.

He further said that government had successfully controlled the soaring trade and budget deficits during first quarter (July to September) of the year 2019-2020.

Officials informed that visiting IMF team held discussions with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on the first days of its visit. The FBR has provided the data of first quarter performance of the ongoing fiscal year.

The Fund was informed that FBR had...