The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to approve a second tranche of 800 million dollars of its 7.6-billon- dollar program to save Pakistan from defaulting on external payments, dpa quoted a senior official as saying today. "The Executive Board of the IMF will approve the second tranche for Pakistan by the end of March 2009," Pakistan's Finance Secretary Waqar Masood told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa from Dubai, where the sides concluded the talks. The two teams agreed on all major macroeconomic targets for the fiscal year ending on June 30 as they reviewed financial targets set for the country to qualify for the second tranche of the IMF mission's loan approved in November 2008. The organization said the country was on track to comply with its economic programme. But, it warned, "the deterioration in the global economic environment and weaker economic activity call for an update of the economic framework and a recalibration of economic policies."
