Washington (TDI): The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Executive Board is set to meet on May 9 to discuss the $1.3 billion staff-level agreement with Pakistan under its ongoing 37-month bailout program.
The meeting will cater to Islamabad’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF), request for the modification of performance criteria, and request for an arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, according to a statement issued by IMF.
IMF and Pakistan reached a Staff Level Agreement (SLA) and agreed on the first review of the $7 loan facility in March. The SLA, a 28-month agreement, would support Islamabad’s efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, the IMF had said back then.
If approved by the IMF’s Executive Board, Pakistan will have access to about $1 billion under the EFF, bringing total disbursements under the program to approximately $2 billion.
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Ahead of the upcoming meeting, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb recently held a meeting with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on the margins of the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings 2025 in Washington and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to reforms in key sectors.
Separately, IMF has downgraded Pakistan’s economic growth projection for the current financial year from 3 percent to 2.6 percent — the World Bank however projects 2.7 percent growth in the fiscal year ending June 2025.
In its, World Economic Outlook report, the IMF said that Pakistan’s GDP growth for the upcoming fiscal year (2025–26) is expected to rise to 3.6 percent.
Read More: Pakistan Secures $1.3B IMF Climate Loan
Inflation in Pakistan — which stood at 23.4 percent in 2024 — is forecast at 5.1 percent for the current financial year, with the IMF projecting it to rise further to 7.7 percent in the next fiscal year.
The IMF also revised its forecast for the country’s current account deficit. It now expects the deficit to stand at 0.1 percent of GDP, compared to its earlier estimate of 1 percent.
