IMF team Pakistan next week visit has been confirmed, with an International Monetary Fund delegation set to arrive on September 23 to begin the next review under Pakistan’s ongoing Extended Fund Facility program, a visit that will shape the country’s economic targets for the rest of the fiscal year.
What the IMF Review Will Cover
The IMF team will stay in Pakistan for around two weeks to hold detailed discussions with officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Board of Revenue. The talks will cover Pakistan’s economic targets achieved through June 2026, along with the new economic targets and conditions the IMF is expected to set for the current fiscal year, essentially checking how well the country has stuck to its commitments so far.
The IMF mission will also discuss the power sector’s circular debt, inflation, the policy rate and foreign exchange reserves during the review, all key indicators the Fund tracks closely under Pakistan’s program. Progress on the government’s privatization program will also be reviewed as part of the discussions, according to sources familiar with the visit’s agenda.
Pakistan’s Broader IMF Program
Pakistan is currently under a 37-month Extended Fund Facility program approved by the IMF in September 2024, with total financing of about $7 billion. The program focuses on maintaining macroeconomic stability, strengthening public finances and tax collection, rebuilding foreign exchange reserves, improving the energy sector, reforming state-owned enterprises, and advancing broader structural reforms across the economy.
The upcoming talks will assess Pakistan’s progress under the program so far and set the economic targets and conditions to be followed during the current fiscal year, meaning the outcome of this review could directly influence future loan tranche releases as well as domestic policy decisions on taxation, energy pricing and state enterprise reform.
Given that the review touches on taxation and revenue collection, it comes at a notable moment, following recent controversy over FBR’s IRIS portal outages that left taxpayers unable to file returns smoothly, an issue that could factor into discussions about Pakistan’s tax collection performance and digital compliance infrastructure during the IMF’s visit.
Authorities are expected to present updated figures on revenue collection, energy sector reforms and reserve accumulation when the delegation arrives, with the review’s conclusions likely to be made public in the weeks following the mission’s departure.
Economists tracking the program say this review is particularly important because it falls roughly midway through the 37-month facility, making it a checkpoint on whether Pakistan can sustain the fiscal discipline required to keep disbursements on schedule. Slippages on tax collection targets, delays in privatization of loss-making state enterprises, or a widening circular debt figure in the power sector could all complicate the negotiations and potentially affect the terms attached to future tranches. On the other hand, strong performance on reserve accumulation and inflation control could give Islamabad more room to negotiate on politically sensitive areas like energy pricing and subsidy programs, including the recently launched fuel relief scheme for smaller vehicles.
Business groups and independent economists will also be watching closely to see whether the review brings any new conditions tied to energy tariffs or taxation on specific sectors, since past IMF reviews have often resulted in adjustments that directly affected consumer prices and business costs across the country.