ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin, said on Monday Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would “this week” sign an agreement on the release of a $1 billion tranche of a bailout package, local media reported.

The three-year, $6 billion package, approved in 2019, was aimed at shoring up fragile public finances and strengthening a slowing economy. Negotiations for the release of the latest tranche started in the first week of October in Washington.

Five reviews of the program had been completed by March. The sixth is pending since June this year, which, if completed, will enable Pakistan to receive around $1 billion from the fund.

“All issues have been settled with the International Monetary Fund and an agreement will be signed this week,” Pakistan’s Geo News quoted Tarin as saying at a ceremony in Islamabad.

Tarin was in Washington last month to lead the Pakistani delegation in talks with the IMF for the revival of the $6 billion Extended Fund Facility. The accord reportedly could not be signed “due to a disagreement over some conditions set by the lending agency,” Geo said.

“You can take an assurance from me right now, we are very close [to an agreement],” Shaukat Tarin told reporters in Islamabad last week. “There are just one or two things which we are still discussing.”

The finance chief’s comments came after media reports that talks between the Fund and Pakistan had concluded over a week ago and failed.

Last week IMF Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department, Jihad Azour, said there was ‘progress’ in talks between officials from the IMF and Pakistan.