Pakistan meets all requirements for the IMF bailout deal — official

Pakistan is looking to clinch a staff-level agreement on an International Monetary Fund bailout of more than $6 billion this month after addressing all of the lender's requirements in its annual budget, its junior finance minister has said.

"We hope to culminate this (IMF) process in the next three to four weeks," Minister of State for Finance, Revenue and Power Ali Pervaiz Malik said on Wednesday, with the aim of thrashing out a staff-level agreement before the IMF board recess.

"I think it will be north of $6 billion," he said of the size of the package, though he added at this point the IMF's validation was the primary focus.

The South Asian country has set challenging revenue targets in its annual budget to help it win approval from the IMF for a loan to stave off another economic meltdown, even as domestic anger rises at new taxation measures.

The IMF did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

'No major issues left'

Pakistan has set a tax revenue target of 13 trillion rupees ($47 billion) for the fiscal year that began on July 1, a near-40 percent jump from the prior year, and a sharp drop in its fiscal deficit to 5.9 percent of gross domestic product from 7.4 percent the previous year.

Malik said the point of pushing out a tough and unpopular budget was to use it a stepping stone for an IMF programme, adding the lender was satisfied with the revenue measures taken, based on their talks.

"There are no major issues left to address, now that all major prior actions have been met, the budget being one of them," Malik said.

"Obviously they (budget reforms) are burdensome for the local economy but the IMF program is all about stabilisation," Malik said.

Pakistan's benchmark share index rose 1 percent during trading on Wednesday, reaching a record intraday high of 80,348 points at 0640 GMT.

The index has rallied roughly 10 percent since the budget was presented on June 12, helped by continued optimism about getting an IMF bailout package to bolster the struggling economy.