WASHINGTON   -  As Islamabad looks for another bailout pro­gramme from the Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF), the global lender has stated that it is ready to “engage” with Pakistan in the “com­ing months” to help the country resolve “fiscal and external stability challenges.”

“The authorities have expressed interest in a successor IMF support­ed programme with the aim of resolving Paki­stan’s fiscal and external stability challenges and laying the foundation for inclusive growth. And, of course, we stand ready to engage in pro­gramme discussions in the coming months,” said IMF’s Communi­cations Director Julie Kozack in a press brief­ing on Tuesday. Kozack spoke about the fresh bailout programme in response to a question asked about the Stand­by Arrangement (SBA) and whether Pakistan was out of the woods economically. The IMF com­munications director shared that the Executive Board meeting of the lender will take place at the end of this month to approve the dis­bursement of the remaining $1.1 billion of the SBA fol­lowing the staff level agree­ment between Pakistan and IMF. “The staff level agree­ment recognises the strong programme implementation by the State Bank of Paki­stan and the caretaker gov­ernment in recent months, as well as the new government’s intentions for ongoing policy and reform efforts to move Pakistan from stabilisation to a strong and sustainable recovery,” said Kozack. The IMF official noted that there was an improvement in Paki­stan’s “economic and finan­cial” situation since the com­pletion of the first review of the SBA. “Growth and con­fidence are continuing to re­cover,” said Kozack. She add­ed that the IMF will release growth forecasts in the com­ing months as part of the World Economic Outlook. On March 20, Pakistan and the IMF struck a staff-lev­el agreement on the second and final review under the US $3 billion SBA paving the way for the release of the last tranche from the lender.