Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have made ‘significant’ progress toward reaching a Staff Level Agreement (SLA) on the first review under the 37-month Extended Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), the Washington-based lender said in a statement.
“An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team, led by Nathan Porter, visited Islamabad and Karachi from February 24 to March 14, 2025, to hold discussions on the first review of Pakistan’s economic program supported by the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and on a possible new arrangement under the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF),” the statement read.
Nathan Porter said, “Program implementation has been strong, and the discussions have made considerable progress in several areas including the planned fiscal consolidation to durably reduce public debt, maintenance of sufficiently tight monetary policy to maintain low inflation, acceleration of cost-reducing reforms to improve energy sector viability, and implementation of Pakistan’s structural reform agenda to accelerate growth, while strengthening social protection and rebuilding health and education spending.
