Islamabad, February 25 As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) review mission arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday, the country's Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb expressed hope for a successful review that would lead to the release of a USD 1.2 billion tranche.
The staff mission will conduct the third review under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of USD 7 billion and the second review under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) of USD 1.1 billion, according to statements by the IMF and the Ministry of Finance.
The IMF mission, led by Iva Petrova, landed in Karachi where it began discussions with officials. It will remain in Pakistan until March 11 to complete the two reviews.
Successful completion of the reviews is expected to unlock approximately USD 1.2 billion – USD 1 billion from the EFF and USD 200 million from the RSF – by late April.
Aurangzeb said that Pakistan was preparing for the third review, which "will cover both performance benchmarks and structural benchmarks, as well as a forward-looking assessment of the program."
He said that he would meet the IMF team in Islamabad for further discussions, describing them as a "meaningful conversation," while noting that it was too early to predict outcomes.
According to informed sources, the mission would hold talks on various issues affecting the economy, including circular debt, electricity tariff adjustments, and the implementation of the Governance and Corruption Diagnostic report and the National Fiscal Pact.
The next budget of 2026-27 will also be reviewed, along with efforts to stabilize the economy, which has improved significantly since it was feared in 2023 that the country would default on its external obligations.
Recently, Pakistan has registered improvements, such as reporting a primary fiscal surplus of 1.3 per cent of GDP for FY25, in line with program targets, while the State Bank projects inflation to remain within the 5-7 per cent range for FY26 and FY27.
