ISLAMABAD: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission is due to visit Pakistan on Sept 23 for a biannual review of the country’s economic performance and implementation of the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility and the $1.4bn Resilience and Sustainability Facility for the period ending June 30, 2026.
Pakistan is currently under a 37-month, $7bn IMF programme aimed at stabilising the economy through fiscal discipline, structural reforms and measures to support long-term growth.
Official sources said the mission, led by Iva Petrova, wouldstay for almost two weeks, until the first week of October, to conduct the fourth review of the EFF and the third review of the RSF.
The mission is expected to begin with technical discussions at the State Bank of Pakistan, followed by meetings with the government’s sectoral teams and a customary inaugural meeting with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.
The review will 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 tax machinery’s repeated large annual shortfalls. It will also be the first review after 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.
Performance against end-June 2026 fiscal targets the period under review has mostly remained on track, although there was a major revenue shortfall and slippages in the policy matrix.
These included government intervention in commodity operations, particularly wheat and sugar,despite an IMF condition requiring the government to refrain from intervening in commodity markets.
Given the biannual reviews of both the EFF and RSF, the two sides will have to reach agreement not only on past performance but also on forwardlooking implementation plans. Upon successful completion of the reviews, Pakistan would become eligible for disbursement of about $1bn (760 million Special Drawing Rights) under the EFF and another $200m under the RSF by the end of November or early December.
Official reports suggest that while qualitative performance criteria on the fiscal and monetary sides were largely on track, progress on economic governance reforms lagged far behind requirements.
According to these reports, only a couple oftargets, out of more than three dozen set for improving economic governance during the January-June 2026 period, had been met.
The targets were set by the prime minister following the IMF’s governance and corruption diagnostic assessment, which identified serious shortcomings in efforts to combat corruption.
Although the government had introduced reforms aimed at ensuring transparent procurement in state-owned enterprises, direct contracting with SOEs without open competitive bidding continued.
There were also reports of agencies issuing tenders after projects had already been completed through preferred contractors,undermining competitive pricing and transparency.
Rules intended to end such preferential treatment have yettobe passed.Earlier in July, an IMF representative praised Pakistan’s economic reforms under the $7bn programme.
IMF Resident Representative for Pakistan Mahir Binici said the coun-try’s performance under the 2024 EFF had been ‘strong so far’, according to a press release issued by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute following his guest lecture in Islamabad.