KARACHI - A mission of the International Monetary Fund is arriving next month in Pakistan to conduct the review of the economic performance of the country under the Stand-By Facility worth $7.6 billion provided by the fund in November last year. The team of the IMF would look into the targets to be achieved by the government by December 2008. Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin said that the government would ask the IMF to enhance the quota of assistance. He said that the IMF has provided assistance to Pakistan five times over the quota, but to some other countries the fund has provided much more quotas than Pakistan. He pointed out that the purpose of obtaining more assistance from the IMF was to strengthen the reserves that would revive the investors' confidence, improve investment and international rating of Pakistan. "After the disbursement of the first tranche of 3.1 billion dollars by the IMF, some circles were expecting a big decline in the reserves, but our strategy and measures have raised the reserves to above 10 billion dollars that was stunning for the pessimists," he said.Tarin proudly said that the government has achieved the economic targets which were committed to the International Monetary Fund. The tax revenue collection, fiscal imbalance, foreign exchange reserves and current account deficits are better than the parameters that were given to the fund as targets. Believe it that the IMF people have expressed their surprise over a significant increase in the foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan. "The reserves are supposed to be around 8.6 billion dollars by June-2008, but we have raised the foreign exchange reserves to above 10 billion dollars till last week," he said. "We are making efforts to stabilize the foreign exchange reserves to about 12 billion dollars or beyond this level by June 2008." An impressive reduction in the imports, action against the illegal business of foreign exchange and massive cut in the international oil prices have helped Pakistan to raise the reserves more than the expected level these days, he said. Mr Tarin said that the growth of the inflation was decelerating and the government would not incorporate further hike in the discount rate. By June this year the government could reduce the discount rate as the inflation is expected to shrink significantly, he said. At the end of this calendar year the inflation is being seen in single digit range that would lead to a substantial cut in the discount rate, he added.