KARACHI: Finance Minister Asad Umar has said that Pakistan can wait two months before deciding on an IMF programme.

`We aren`t in a hurry,` he is quoted by Bloomberg in a report, words that echo remarks he began making publicly even while the IMF negotiations were under way. `We are covered even if it delays for two months.

The remarks were made on the sidelines of a conference being held inIslamabad. A month`s delay would push the start of any programme to the end of January. In his earlier remarks, he had hinted at mid-January as the date they were looking at for the board`s approval of a programme.

`We still want to have the programme,` he told Bloomberg. `But we`re not in a hurry to have it. It will ease and open up other funding avenues.

The government is looking to bilateral assistance from `friendly countries` to help plug a $12 billion hole in the external accounts. Help from Saudi Arabia began arriving last week as $1 billion from a committed $3bn of cash support landed in the State Bank`s coffers. An additional oil facility worth $3bn more is also on the cards, accord-ing to government announcements.

In addition, the government is continuing talks with the Chinese, though thus far without any announced outcome. Those talks began when Imran Khan made his maiden visit as prime minister to Beijing earlier this month, where the Chinese authorities promised a `new chapter in cooperation` between the two countries, andPremier Li Keqiang said Beijing was open to providing assistance to Pakistan `but more talks are needed` first.

Those additional talks are still continuing. Subsequent visits to the UAE and Malaysia by the prime minister have not, thus f ar, yielded concrete evidence of balance of payments support, but the government remains hopeful that further assistance is in the pipeline.