Aurangzeb kicks off talks with IMF mission

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb held a kick-off meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission on Tuesday. “Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, held a kick-off meeting with the IMF mission, led by Iva Petrova, ” read a statement released by the Ministry of Finance. “The IMF mission is in Islamabad for the fourth review of Pakistan’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement and the third review of the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), ” it added. Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Jameel Ahmad, Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Rashid Langrial and Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani also participated in the virtual meeting. Last week, an IMF staff mission arrived in Pakistan to start negotiations. On Monday, the government briefed the visiting IMF review mission that the Gulf War and disruption in the Strait of Hormuz had caused revenue loss in the first quarter and slowed down economic activities. The government also informed the mission that around 10, 000 federal government employees will be required to digitally declare their movable and immovable assets by October 30, 2026, as part of a mandatory asset declaration regime. Pakistan’s ongoing IMF programs include an Extended Arrangement under the EFF and an RSF. The EFF was approved by the IMF’s Executive Board in the last week of September 2024. This 37-month bailout program is valued at approximately $7 billion (SDR 5, 320 million). Meanwhile, Pakistan formally inquired about an RSF arrangement in October 2024. A staff-level agreement for a new 28-month arrangement under the RSF, totalling about $1. 3 billion, was reached on March 25, 2025, concurrently with the first EFF review. After IMF staff and the Pakistani authorities reach a staff-level agreement (SLA) on the fourth review under the EFF and the third review under the RSF, the agreement will be subject to approval of the IMF’s Executive Board. Upon approval, Pakistan will have access to about $1 billion under the EFF and $200 million under the RSF. Pakistan has already received $4. 8 billion under the two arrangements.

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