Pakistan on Wednesday received 1.2 billion dollars from International Monetary Fund (IMF), sources said. The amount comprises 840 million dollars of the third tranche of the Stand-By Arrangement and 360 million dollars of an augmentation sanctioned by IMF board in its recently held meeting. With the current inflows, the country''s foreign exchange reserves surged to 13 billion dollars, sources added.
The IMF board also approved an augmentation of excess by an amount of 3.2363 billion dollars to help the Pakistan address increased balance of payments needs. However, sources said that hin case of receiving already promised funds from Friends of Pakistan the country has to reimburse the excess approved amount to IMF.
After approval of excess 3.2 billion dollars, total financial support to Pakistan has reached 11.327 billion dollars, which is 700 percent of Pakistan''s quota, or 6.3 percent of its GDP. Sources in SBP and Finance Ministry also confirmed that third tranche from IMF has been received.
"Yes, we have received some 1.2 billion dollars from IMF on account of third instalment of SBA and including augmentation fund," said Wasimuddin, chief spokesman of SBP, adding that the amount had physically been transferred in the central bank account on Wednesday morning. With the release of third tranche total disbursements under the IMF program comes to 5.3265 billion dollars. As per agreement, a portion of the augmented excess Pakistan could be used to finance priority spending until of the disbursements of donor support pledged for 2009-10.