ISLAMABAD: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is scheduled to meet on May 9 to consider ‘Pakistan – first review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program, request for modification of performance criteria and request for an arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility’.
The first review under the $7 billion EFF program and a new arrangement of $1.3 billion under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). Upon approval from the Executive Board, Pakistan will have access to about $1 billion (SDR 760 million) under the EFF, bringing total disbursements under the program to about $2 billion.
In addition, the country would unlock the $1.3 billion under a new climate resilience loan program spanning 28 months.
An IMF team, led by Nathan Porter, held discussions during a February 24-March 14, 2025 mission to Karachi and Islamabad, and virtually thereafter, for the first review of Pakistan’s economic program supported by the EFF and on a new arrangement under the IMF’s RSF.
On March 25, 2025, the Fund stated that Pakistani authorities and the IMF team had reached a staff-level agreement on a comprehensive program endorsed by the federal and provincial governments that could be supported by a 37-month EFF in the amount equivalent to $7 billion.
The Fund stated that the program aims to capitalize on the hard-won macroeconomic stability achieved over the past year by furthering efforts to strengthen public finances, reduce inflation, rebuild external buffers and remove economic distortions to spur private sector led growth.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
