Pakistan Receives First Installment from IMF

Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced today, Thursday, that the State Bank of Pakistan has received 1.2 billion dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is the first tranche of a three billion dollar bailout package aimed at stabilizing the economy. This comes just one day after the World Bank approved the package. After being on the brink of defaulting on sovereign debt, Pakistan received one billion dollars from the UAE and two billion dollars from Saudi Arabia earlier this week, with both Arab countries expressing confidence in reaching an agreement between Islamabad and the IMF by the end of June. Dar stated in a televised address that the first tranche of IMF funding has been credited to the account of the Pakistani bank. The value of sovereign bonds and the Pakistani rupee rose on Thursday following the approval of the bailout package by the IMF Board.