By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Pakistan&nbsp;expects to conclude&nbsp;talks&nbsp;with the International Monetary Fund over a&nbsp;staff&nbsp;level&nbsp;agreement as soon as this&nbsp;week, the country's&nbsp;finance&nbsp;secretary&nbsp;said, in a crucial step towards unlocking funds to battle an economic crisis.
An&nbsp;IMF&nbsp;mission spent more than a&nbsp;week&nbsp;in Islamabad earlier this month to discuss a policy framework to allow the release of more than $1 billion in funding from a stalled $6.5 billion bailout package, originally approved in 2019.
However, the mission left without a conclusion.
"The consultations with the&nbsp;IMF&nbsp;are in the final stages. We expect to conclude the consultations soon, even within the&nbsp;week," Hamed Yaqoob Sheikh, the top official in the&nbsp;finance&nbsp;ministry, told Reuters.
Commerce Minister Syed Naveed Qamar told Reuters during a visit to Washington that&nbsp;IMF&nbsp;approval was "almost there" after two remaining issues involving the country's power sector had been resolved. He said his government was ready to implement required reforms.
Qamar said the&nbsp;IMF&nbsp;program would allow&nbsp;Pakistan&nbsp;to slowly nurse its economy back to health after the devastation of last year's flooding, adding his belief that the world commmunity should help&nbsp;Pakistan&nbsp;cope with the impact of climate change.
"I hope the world also realizes that a collapse of&nbsp;Pakistan's economy would be a global phenomenon," he said. "It's not just a local issue for the&nbsp;Pakistani population."
The&nbsp;IMF's local representative didn't respond to a Reuters request for a comment.
The&nbsp;staff&nbsp;level&nbsp;agreement would need approval from the&nbsp;IMF's board before the funds can be released.
The financing package has been held&nbsp;up&nbsp;since late last year over policy issues, with the&nbsp;IMF&nbsp;requesting a series of fiscal adjustments, including the removal of subsidies, jacking&nbsp;up&nbsp;fuel prices and raising more taxes to bridge a revenue shortfall.
Pakistan&nbsp;has taken steps, such as raising more than 170 billion&nbsp;Pakistani rupees ($648 million) through a supplementary&nbsp;finance&nbsp;bill passed by the parliament on Monday.
Other measures that still need to be taken to finalise the agreement include raising interest rates, which already stand at 17%, as well as obtaining commitments for more bilateral and multilateral funding, officials say.
The&nbsp;IMF&nbsp;funds are critical for the $350 billion South Asian economy, which is facing a severe balance of payments crisis.The fiscal adjustments demanded by the deal, however, are likely to fuel record high inflation, which hit 27.5% year-on-year in January, analysts say.
($1 = 262.5000&nbsp;Pakistani rupees)
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Alex Richardson, Tomasz Janowski, Sharon Singleton and Lincoln Feast.)

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Pakistan finance secretary sees IMF staff level talks wrapping up this week