ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Tuesday the country planned to discuss the contours of a new loan program with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation next month while hoping to reach a staff-level agreement with the global lender by early July.

Pakistan secured a $3 billion IMF bailout last year to avert a sovereign default and hopes to receive the final tranche later this month. However, the government wants a fresh IMF loan since the country continues to face tough economic challenges and plans to implement structural reforms.

“We are still hoping that we can get into a staff-level agreement by the time June is done or early July so that we can move on,” the finance minister said while addressing a news conference.

He informed he had good discussions with IMF and World Bank officials during the spring meetings held by both international lending organizations in Washington.

Aurangzeb maintained it was not right to say that the IMF was imposing strict conditions on Pakistan since the country needed to carry out reforms on its own to strengthen its economy.

“This is Pakistan’s program which is helped, supported, assisted by the fund,” he said. “This is how we have to see it since this is the way ownership will come.”

He maintained the country’s foreign reserves were increasing and would reach about $10 billion by the end of June this year well before the new IMF program.

“Once the final tranche comes from the IMF, end of this week, we will be over $9 billion,” he told the media. “By the time we end June, we will be anywhere between $9-10 billion, which is going to be equivalent to two months of import cover.”

The finance minister noted the country had made progress since its foreign reserves dipped to nearly $3.4 billion last year.

He said the stock market was also hitting all-time highs and foreign buyers were entering the market.

“The gross domestic product growth is expected to be at 2.6 percent in the current fiscal year,” he said, adding the government was taking steps to attract foreign investment and keep the current account and fiscal deficits within reasonable limits.

“The current account deficit has been reduced to $1 billion after a 74 percent reduction in FY24,” the minister said, adding the inflation was expected to remain at 24 percent during the ongoing fiscal year, while the trade deficit had been reduced to $17 billion following a 24.9 percent decrease.

He said the quantum and duration of the new IMF program was yet not clear, though the government wanted to secure at least a three-year loan package.

Pakistan and IMF have said they are already in discussions for the new loan.

Aurangzeb said structural reforms carried out by the government include increasing the government’s tax revenue-to-GDP ratio to 13 percent to 14 percent in next two or three years from the current level of around 9 percent, reducing losses of state-owned enterprises through their privatization, and better management of the debt-laden energy sector.

With input from Reuters