Pakistan, IMF near staff level agreement for next loan tranche
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'Program implementation has been strong,' says Nathan Porter
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) team, led by Nathan Porter, and Pakistani authorities have 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).
Porter stated this in his end-of-mission statement as the delegation visited Islamabad and Karachi from Feb 24 to March 14, 2025, to hold discussions on the first review of Pakistan’s economic programme supported by EFF and on a possible new arrangement under the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
“Program implementation has been strong, and the discussions have made considerable progress in several areas including 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 Pakistan’s structural reform agenda to accelerate growth, while strengthening social protection and rebuilding health and education spending,” read the statement.
Porter said progress had also been made in discussions on the authorities’ climate reform agenda, which aims to reduce vulnerabilities from natural disasters-related risks, and accompanying reforms which could be supported under a possible arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
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He added that mission and the authorities would continue policy discussions virtually to finalise these discussions over the coming days.
He also thanked the Pakistani authorities, private sector, and development partners for fruitful discussions and their hospitality throughout this mission.
A day earlier, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation assured Pakistan of economic cooperation during the economic review.
The IMF officials were in Pakistan to conduct the review for release of a $1 billion tranche under the $7 billion bailout package.
The two-week long economic review and negotiations between the Pakistani authorities and the officials of the global lender concluded on March 14.
For final round of talks, the delegation visited the Ministry of Finance where they met Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.
The visiting officials lauded the performance and measures taken by the country’s economic team.
During the meeting, Aurangzeb assured the IMF of achieving all economic targets. He stated that no targets would be violated while staying in the loan programme.
