IMF mission due on Sept 23 for biannual review of Pakistan’s economic performance

ISLAMABAD: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission is due to visit Pakistan on September 23 for a biannual review of the country’s economic performance and implementation of the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the $1. 4bn Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) for the period ending June 30, 2026. Pakistan is currently under a $7 billion, 37-month IMF programme , aimed at stabilising the economy through fiscal discipline, structural reforms, and measures to support long-term growth. Official sources said that during an almost two-week visit ending in the first week of October, the IMF staff mission, led by Iva Petrova, would conduct the fourth review of the EFF and the third review of the RSF.

The mission would begin its visit with technical discussions at the State Bank of Pakistan, followed by meetings with the government’s sectoral teams, alongside a customary inaugural meeting with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb. The engagement would also examine policy implementation at the start of the fiscal year, particularly the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) ability and preparedness to meet its first-ever half-yearly revenue collection structural benchmark under an IMF programme, given the revenue machinery’s repeated large annual shortfalls. This would also be the first review after the provincial governments surrendered more than Rs1. 035 trillion of their National Finance Commission (NFC) shares to the Centre during the current fiscal year for national security and water resources, on top of the Rs1. 8tr cash surplus separately committed under IMF pressure. The programme’s performance against the fiscal targets as of end-June 2026 — the period under review — has mostly been on track, albeit with a major revenue shortfall and slippages in the…