India abstained from Pakistan’s stand-by arrangement (SBA) loan request to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the executive board meeting in July 2023, according to India’s Ministry of Finance.
Key points
- The arrangement provides short-term financial assistance to countries facing balance of payments problems.
- On July 12, the IMF’s executive board approved a nine-month SBA for Pakistan for an amount of about $3 billion to support the country’s economic stabilisation programme.
- The executive board’s approval led to an immediate disbursement of $1.2 billion loans to Pakistan.
IMF’s executive board
- The IMF’s executive board has 24 members. Each member is appointed by one or a group of countries.
- The IMF does not publicly disclose how each country voted on the SBA approvals.
- This is because the board is a confidential body and its deliberations are not open to the public.
- With a 3.05 per cent voting rights, India’s executive director to the IMF, K V Subramanian, also represents Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka at the IMF board.
