By Ariba Shahid and Asif Shahzad
KARACHI (Reuters) -The executive board of the International Monetary Fund will meet on April 29 to discuss the approval of $1.1 billion funding for Pakistan, the fund said on Wednesday.
The funding is the second and last tranche of a $3 billion standby arrangement with the IMF, which it secured last summer to avert a sovereign default and which runs out this month.
The South Asian nation is seeking a new long-term, larger IMF loan. Pakistan's Finance Minister, Muhammad Aurangzeb, has said Islamabad could secure a staff-level agreement on the new program by early July.
Islamabad says it is seeking a loan over at least three years to help macroeconomic stability and execute a long-due and painful structural reforms, though Aurangzeb has declined to detail what seize of programme the country seeks.
Islamabad is yet to make a formal request, but the Fund and the government are already in discussions.
If secured, it would be the 24th IMF bailout for Pakistan.
The $350 billion economy faces a chronic balance of payment crisis, with nearly $24 billion to repay in debt and interest over the next fiscal year - three-time more than its central bank's foreign currency reserves.
Pakistan's finance ministry expect the economy to grow by 2.6% in the current fiscal year ending June, while average inflation is projected to stand at 24%, down from 29.2% in fiscal year 2023/2024. Inflation soared to a record high of 38% last May.
(Reporting by Ariba Shahid and Asif Shahzad, writing by Rodrigo Campos, editing by Karin Strohecker)
