Pakistan has opened a new round of talks with the International Monetary Fund, with the Fund’s mission in Islamabad for the fourth review of the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility and the third review of the Resilience and Sustainability Facility.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb held the kick-off meeting with the mission, led by IMF Mission Chief for Pakistan Iva Petrova, on September 29 in Islamabad, marking the start of detailed discussions on economic performance and outstanding reform commitments.
The review will assess Pakistan’s performance through June 2026 against programme commitments, covering fiscal targets, tax reforms, monetary policy, energy-sector measures and structural benchmarks. The mission has already held discussions with the State Bank in Karachi and is expected to remain in the country until the first week of October.
Successful completion of the reviews, followed by approval from the IMF Executive Board, could unlock about $1 billion under the EFF and another $200 million under the RSF — roughly $1.2 billion in new disbursements, potentially by end-November or early December.
In the Islamabad phase, the mission is meeting the Finance Ministry, the Federal Board of Revenue and other institutions. Discussions are also covering a heavy legislative agenda, with the Finance Secretary having told a parliamentary committee that the IMF had sought around 174 amendments to various laws covering taxation, energy, privatisation, state-owned enterprises and climate-related reforms.
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