Pakistan will be required to give an assurance that its balance of payments deficit is fully financed for the remaining period of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) program, the lender's resident representative said on March 6. The external financing is one of the last in a string of prior actions the lender wants Islamabad to complete before it clears funding stalled since late last year, Esther Perez Ruiz told Reuters. The funding is critical for the South Asian economy, whose central bank foreign-exchange reserves are dropping to levels barely able to cover four weeks of imports. (Reuters)
