Pakistan expects bailout agreement with IMF by mid-January

Pakistan has extended bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and expected an agreement by mid-January, a finance ministry official said on Tuesday.

"We have covered a lot of areas in terms of convergence of views," finance ministry spokesman Noor Ahmed told Reuters. "But there is some more distance to be covered and that's not much. Another 20 percent of distance has to be covered."