ISLAMABAD    -    State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Gover­nor Jameel Ahmed on Wednesday said that Pakistan and Internation­al Monetary Fund (IMF) would soon reach a staff level agreement, which would revive the loan programme.

He made these remarks during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, which was chaired by Saleem Mandviwalla. 

The Governor SBP informed that Pakistan was very close to final­izing a broader financing agree­ment with the IMF. He announced that the country’s foreign ex­change reserves held by the cen­tral bank has gone up by $1.5 bil­lion in just one month, bringing the total to $4.3 billion. He expressed his confidence that foreign exchange reserves would continue to increase by June 30 of this year. He further said that the economy is cur­rently facing many external and internal challenges and the Ukraine war has increased prices of goods, which also led to inflation in Pakistan. He said this year’s current account deficit was estimated to be $10 billion. He said the current account deficit is low due to the policy measures taken by the government and the State Bank, adding the current ac­count deficit will remain up to $7 billion by the end of this fis­cal. It was also informed that imports will also be revived with the revival of the IMF program. The Governor State Bank while admitting that the continuous deficit of the econ­omy is due to the policy in­duced slow down in response to monetary policy tighten­ing and administration mea­sures to counter inflation and address external challenges. Senator Mohsin Aziz pointed out that around 4 to 5 million dollars are being smuggled every year. The committee sought details of amount of dollars smuggled to Afghan­istan in the recent period. It was also noted that due to high international inter bank­ing rates, has resulted in Hun­di and black money business. “We can see the smuggling of dollar and black money busi­ness now being done through infants,“ remarked Senator Mohsin Aziz. The commit­tee recommended to serious­ly address the issue of varying dollar rate of open market in­ter banking and black market and bring the rate inconformi­ty so that everyone receives a fair price. Saleem Mandvi­walla also emphasised that rupee trade with Afghani­stan be immediately stopped which is also contributing to external deficit.