ISLAMABAD (MNN); An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on September 23 to conduct a biannual assessment of the country’s economic performance and implementation of the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and $1.4 billion Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
According to official sources cited in a report published by Dawn, the mission, led by Iva Petrova, will stay for nearly two weeks and is expected to complete its visit in the first week of October. The talks will cover the fourth review of the EFF and the third review of the RSF for the period ending June 30, 2026.
Pakistan is currently implementing a 37-month, $7 billion IMF programme designed to stabilise the economy through fiscal discipline, structural reforms and measures aimed at achieving sustainable economic growth.
The mission is expected to begin technical discussions with the State Bank of Pakistan before holding meetings with various government sectoral teams. A customary opening meeting with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is also expected.
A key area of the review will be the implementation of policies at the beginning of the new fiscal year, particularly the Federal Board of Revenue’s preparedness to achieve its first-ever half-yearly revenue collection structural benchmark under an IMF programme.
The IMF is expected to closely examine the revenue position amid the FBR’s history of falling substantially short of annual collection targets.
The review will also take place against the backdrop of a major fiscal arrangement under which provincial governments surrendered more than Rs1.035 trillion from their National Finance Commission shares to the federal government during the current fiscal year for national security and water resources. This was in addition to a separately committed Rs1.8 trillion cash surplus agreed under pressure from the IMF.
Officials indicate that Pakistan’s performance against most fiscal targets for the period ending June 2026 remained broadly on track, although significant weaknesses emerged in revenue collection and some elements of the agreed policy matrix.
Among the areas likely to attract IMF attention is government intervention in commodity operations, particularly wheat and sugar. Such intervention is considered inconsistent with the programme’s requirement that the government limit its involvement in commodity markets.
Since both the EFF and RSF are subject to biannual reviews, Pakistan and the IMF will need to reach agreement not only on past performance but also on the implementation roadmap for the coming period.
Successful completion of the reviews would make Pakistan eligible to receive around $1 billion, equivalent to 760 million Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), under the EFF, along with approximately $200 million under the RSF. The disbursements could be made by the end of November or early December.
Official assessments suggest that qualitative performance criteria relating to fiscal and monetary policies were largely being met, but progress on economic governance reforms remained considerably slower than required.
Sources said only a small number of the more than three dozen targets designed to strengthen economic governance during January-June 2026 had been achieved. These targets were formulated after the IMF’s governance and corruption diagnostic assessment identified significant weaknesses in Pakistan’s efforts to address corruption.
Although the government has introduced measures aimed at improving transparency in procurement by state-owned enterprises (SOEs), direct contracting between government entities and SOEs without open competitive bidding has reportedly continued.
There have also been instances in which tenders were issued after projects had already been completed through preferred contractors, raising concerns over competitive pricing and transparency. Rules intended to prevent such preferential practices have yet to be formally approved.
Earlier in July, IMF Resident Representative for Pakistan Mahir Binici described the country’s economic reform progress under the $7 billion programme as strong. Speaking at a guest lecture organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in Islamabad, he said Pakistan’s performance under the 2024 EFF had been “strong so far.”
