Pakistan gets breathing space as IMF approves life-saving $3 billion cash injection

Islamabad: Finally Pakistan can take a breather after months of diplomatic struggles for a bailout programme from International Monetary Fund.

IMF on Monday approved of a $3 billion help to the cash strapped nation whose foreign reserves have touched rock-bottom.

The international agency will immediately disburse about $1.2 billion to prop up the country’s failing economy.

The approval comes after IMP and state officials reached an agreement last month, thus giving the nation a leeway to move ahead with daily affairs.

‘The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a 9-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for Pakistan for an amount of SDR2,250 million (about $3 billion, or 111 percent of quota) to support the authorities' economic stabilization program,’ the IMF was quoted as saying.

Pakistan has long been roiling in crisis stemming from inefficient governance, policy failures, internal political issues, devastating floods, and high inflation that have made the nation an economic backwater.