An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on September 23 for a nearly two-week review of the country’s economic performance under its $7 billion, 37-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme and the $1.4 billion Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
Official sources said the mission, led by Iva Petrova, would conduct the fourth review of the EFF and the third review of the RSF during its visit, which is expected to conclude in the first week of October.
The mission will begin technical discussions at the State Bank of Pakistan before holding meetings with the government’s sectoral teams. It will also have a customary introductory meeting with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.
A key focus of the review will be policy implementation during the initial months of the current fiscal year, particularly the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) capacity to meet its first-ever half-yearly revenue collection structural benchmark under an IMF programme.
The review will also assess the fiscal position following the provincial governments’ decision to surrender more than Rs1.035 trillion of their National Finance Commission (NFC) shares to the federal government during the current fiscal year for national security and water resources. This is in addition to a separately committed Rs1.8 trillion cash surplus under the IMF programme.
Pakistan’s performance against fiscal targets for the period ending June 2026 has largely remained on track, although the country faced a significant revenue shortfall and some slippages in the agreed policy measures.
Among the areas of concern is government intervention in commodity operations, particularly wheat and sugar, which runs counter to an IMF condition requiring the government to refrain from intervening in commodity markets.
As the reviews of the $7 billion EFF and $1.4 billion RSF are being conducted simultaneously, Pakistan and the IMF will assess past performance and agree on implementation plans for the coming period.
Successful completion of the reviews would make Pakistan eligible to receive around $1 billion, or 760 million Special Drawing Rights, under the EFF, along with another $200 million under the RSF. The funds are expected to be disbursed by the end of November or early December.
Official reports indicate that qualitative performance criteria related to fiscal and monetary policies have largely remained on track, while progress on economic governance reforms has lagged behind agreed targets.
Of more than three dozen targets for improving economic governance during the January-June 2026 period, only a few had reportedly been achieved. The targets were introduced following the IMF’s governance and corruption diagnostic assessment, which identified significant weaknesses in Pakistan’s efforts to tackle corruption.
The government has introduced reforms aimed at improving transparency in procurement by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). However, direct contracting between SOEs without open competitive bidding has continued.
Reports have also indicated that some government agencies issued tenders after projects had already been completed through preferred contractors, raising concerns over transparency and competitive pricing. Rules intended to prevent such preferential treatment have yet to be approved.
In July, the IMF’s Resident Representative for Pakistan, Mahir Binici, described the country’s reform progress under the $7 billion programme as “strong”.
According to a press release issued by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Binici said Pakistan’s performance under the 2024 EFF programme had been “strong so far”.
