The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has acknowledged Pakistan’s strong implementation of its economic program, highlighting significant progress in fiscal consolidation efforts aimed at reducing public debt, maintaining a tight monetary policy to control inflation, and advancing cost-reducing reforms in the energy sector.
An IMF team, led by Nathan Porter, visited Islamabad and Karachi from February 24 to March 14, 2025, to hold discussions on the first review of Pakistan’s economic program supported by the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and on a possible new arrangement under the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
At the conclusion of the discussions, Mr. Porter said in his statement, “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).
“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,” the IMF mission lead said.
He said that the progress has 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).
The statement further added that the IMF mission and the Pakistan authorities will continue policy discussions virtually to finalise these discussions over the coming days.
At the conclusion of the two-week visit, the IMF team expressed gratitude to the Pakistani authorities, private sector, and development partners for their hospitality and productive discussions throughout the mission.
