KARACHI: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) official confirmed on Tuesday that the global lender was not considering increasing the amount of Pakistan’s $1.4 billion loan from its climate resilience fund, as Islamabad assesses economic damages from the recent devastating floods.
Islamabad and the IMF reached a staff-level agreement on the second review under Pakistan’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the first review under the lender’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) last week. The RSF is part of a broader reform program that aims to help Pakistan adapt to increasingly frequent and devastating climate shocks.
Pakistan is the first country in the Middle East and Central Asia region to access the RSF program. The expected approval from the IMF’s Executive Board will pave the way for Pakistan to receive $200 million under the RSF, the IMF said last week. The South Asian country has said it is currently assessing damages caused by heavy rains and floods this monsoon season, which have killed over 1,000 people, 22,000 livestock and washed away over 2.2 million acres of crops since late June.
When asked whether the IMF had any plans to increase its funding from Pakistan’s $1.4 billion RSF program, the lender’s country representative for Pakistan, Mahir Binici, told Arab News in a written response:
