“Praise be to God,” tweeted Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after the deal was announced early on Friday. The deal, subject to approval by the IMF board in July, comes after an eight-month delay and offers some respite to Pakistan, which is battling an acute balance of payments crisis and falling foreign exchange reserves. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reached a staff-level agreement with Pakistan on a $3bn standby arrangement, the lender said, a decision long awaited by the South Asian nation which is teetering on the brink of default.
