ISLAMABAD: After a lapse of three years, Pakistan has qualified to avail the World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) funding worth $2 billion for the next four fiscal years (2015-19), a top WB official said.

“Pakistan is now maintaining foreign exchange reserves of more than 2.5 months of projected imports and has also satisfied other criteria of World Bank under the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS)," WB Country Director Rachid Benmessaoud said on Wednesday.

Benmessaoud disclosed this to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar while discussing matters relating to a road map of the country's development in the coming years.

An official announcement said that Benmessoud formally informed the government on behalf of the World Bank that Pakistan had again become eligible for availing the IBRD funding after a lapse of three years.

The IBRD funding facility was suspended in March 2012 because at that time Pakistan could not fulfill the required conditions regarding macro-economic stability.

Benmessoud appreciated Pakistan's continuous improvement in the macro-economic indicators, including significant growth in FBR revenue as well as GDP, low inflation, cut in budget deficit and improvement in foreign exchange reserves position of the country. These positives, Benmessoud said, played a pivotal role in restoration of the IBRD funding facility.

At the time the present government took power, the State Bank of Pakistan's reserves were very low. And after making repayments of foreign loans obtained by the previous governments, the central bank's reserves had dropped down to $2.82 billion in Feb 2014. However, corrective measures that followed brought the economy back on track and on Feb 11 this year, the reserves touched the $16 billion mark, including over $11billion with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Speaking to Benmessoud, the finance minister said: “Our team has set a new target and that is to take our foreign exchange reserves to $17 billion and we shall make every possible effort to achieve this target”.

Benmessaoud appreciated the efforts, saying “the World Bank team was happy to cooperate with Pakistan and its leadership, keeping in sight its commitment to development”.

The current IBRD facility will be utilised for priority infrastructure projects, Dar said.