KARACHI: The much awaited International Monetary Fund (IMF) tranche of over $1 billion was received by the State Bank of Pakis­tan (SBP) on Friday. The latest tranche will help improve the country’s investment environment and increase foreign exchange reserves.

“Following the successful completion of 6th review of IMF program the State Bank has received next tranche of 1.053 billion,” the central bank said in a tweet.

Pakistan had approached the IMF in November 2018 to save the economy from $20bn current account deficit. Pakistan made desperate attempts to tap the IMF loan which is conside­red the main pipeline that clears other sources for loans and aid from donor agencies and commercial markets.

The government managed to secure the $6bn Extended Fund Facility in July 2019. However, differences over financial management emerged last year and the government had to go through long negotiations which forced the country to accept the conditions attached with the IMF programme.