Pakistan, IMF review progress under EFF, RSF programmes

July 23, 2026 (MLN): Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reviewed the country's macroeconomic performance and progress under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) and the broader Fund-supported reform programme.

The Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb met First Deputy Managing Director Dan Katz, Deputy Managing Director Nigel Clarke, Director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department Jihad Azour, and Mission Chief for Pakistan Iva Petrova during the engagements.

Federal Minister Aurangzeb highlighted the country's improved fiscal and external balances, achievement of revenue targets, stronger foreign exchange reserves, record remittances and an improved current account position, according to a press release issued.

The discussions also covered tax and energy reforms, privatization, tariff rationalization, debt management, diversification of financing sources, and Pakistan's return to international capital markets, alongside an exchange of views on human capital development, women's economic participation, demographic challenges, technology-led growth, and private sector-led, export-oriented development.

The finance minister concluded the meetings by thanking the Fund for recognizing Pakistan's strong programme ownership and reform progress, while reaffirming the government's commitment to fiscal discipline, policy credibility, structural reforms and long-term economic transformation.

Earlier, however, a fresh round of virtual negotiations between Pakistan and the Fund has ended in deadlock, with both sides unable to agree on a mechanism to unwind close to Rs1.7tr worth of circular debt piled up in the gas sector.

The disagreement centered on a Fund demand that Islamabad stop treating unpaid dues owed to the country's two state-run gas utilities as recoverable receivables and instead record them outright as losses, a proposal government negotiators have resisted, pushing the matter forward to another round of talks slated for September.

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