ISLAMABAD, Oct 12: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is meeting in Washington on Oct 27 to approve two tranche amounting to $228 million, out of the $1.4 billion Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) programme.

“We will sign the Letter of Intent (LoI) on Saturday which will be dispatched to the IMF board immediately for consideration,” said Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Talking to Dawn here on Friday, he said the country’s economy has performed well during the first quarter (July-Sept) of 2003-4, making Pakistan’s case strong for seeking disbursement of two instalments together immediately after the Fund’s board meeting.

He said review of the past six months of the economy had been conducted by the IMF and its senior officials were further briefed about the latest economic situation in the country.

Mr Aziz, who visited the United States along with the prime minister, said he held discussions with the IMF senior officials and informed them about the latest economic indicators.

The revenue collection, he pointed out, was Rs94.1 billion during July-September this year against the target of Rs92.2 billion.

The bank borrowing was Rs43.4 billion, which was better than the target and that the fiscal deficit was on target.

The foreign exchange reserves stood at $11.436 billion and the exchange rate had been stabilized at Rs57.7 against the dollar. “I told the IMF officials that our foreign inflows are strong and we have issued Rs7.6 billion Jumbo bonds having a yield of 3 to 6 per cent depending upon the maturity period of 3, 5 and 10 years,” he added.

“More importantly I informed them that Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) will be finalized by Dec 31 this year and that there will not be any delay in submitting the paper,” the finance minister said.

Mr Aziz said he had also held detailed meetings with the senior officials of the USAID, World Bank, Moody’s International, Standard and Poor’s and the New York Stock Exchange.

Replying to a question, he said that the Bush administration would provide $395 million by October this year.

“Then from Oct 2005, the US government will begin extending funds under $1.5 billion economic assistance, out of a total of $3 billion aid package.”

He said most of the US assistance could be used for poverty alleviation, health, education and retiring debt burden.

Asked about the much sought after American investment, Mr Aziz said that the issue had been raised during the prime minister’s meeting with US officials. A number of American companies, he said, were willingness to make new investment in Pakistan. “But initially, we hope to have considerable investment by overseas Pakistanis residing in North America in oil and gas, pharmaceutical and consumer products,” he said.