ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistani authorities made significant progress toward reaching a staff level agreement on the first review of an ongoing $7 billion programme, IMF Mission Chief Nathan Porter said in a statement on Saturday.
The mission and Pakistani authorities will continue policy discussions via video conference to finalise these discussions over the coming days, the statement said.
“The IMF and the Pakistani authorities made significant progress toward reaching a Staff Level Agreement (SLA) on the first review under the 37-month Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF),” IMF Mission Chief to Pakistan Nathan Porter said in a statement on Friday.
The lender’s team, led by Porter, was in Pakistan from February 24 to March 14 to hold discussions on the first review of Pakistan’s economic programme supported by the EFF and the possibility of a new arrangement under the lender’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
The country’s latest loan programme, secured by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government last year, has played a key role in stabilising Pakistan’s economy and the government has said the country is on course for a long-term recovery.
If the IMF approves the first review of the loan, the country is in line to receive about $1 billion as the second instalment of the loan package.
Highlighting Pakistan’s “strong” implementation of the bailout package, Porter said that the discussions between the two sides “made considerable progress in several areas.
Those areas included the planned fiscal consolidation to durably reduce public debt, maintenance of sufficiently tight monetary policy to maintain low inflation, acceleration of cost-reducing reforms to improve energy sector viability, and implementation of the country’s structural reform agenda to accelerate growth, while strengthening social protection and rebuilding health and education spending.
The IMF official also noted progress in discussions pertaining to Islamabad’s climate reform agenda which aims to reduce vulnerabilities from natural disasters-related risks as well as accompanying reforms which could be supported under a possible arrangement under the RSF.
The mission chief’s statement refers to Pakistan’s formal request, made in October 2024, for around $1 billion under the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST).
Furthermore, Porter said that the two sides “will continue policy discussions virtually to finalise these discussions over the coming days”.
This is a developing story and is being updated with more details.
