ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Executive Board will meet “in coming weeks” to consider a $1.2 billion loan disbursement for Pakistan, an official of the organization said on Sunday.
Pakistan and the IMF reached a staff-level agreement (SLA) on the South Asian country’s loan programs in March this year. The SLA pertained to the $7 billion, 37-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program and a separate $1.4 billion, 28-month Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) loan. The IMF had said then that after its Executive Board approves the SLA, Pakistan will have access to about $1 billion (SDR 760 million) under the EFF and about $210 million (SDR 154 million) under the RSF, bringing total disbursements under the two arrangements to about $4.5 billion.
Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn reported on Sunday that the IMF has called a meeting of its board on May 8 to discuss Pakistan’s disbursements under the two loan programs. However, the IMF’s resident representative in Pakistan, Mahir Binici, told Arab News the global lender had not finalized a date for its Executive Board to meet.
“The IMF Executive Board meeting will be taking place in coming weeks to discuss the SLA reached on Mar. 27,” Binici said on Sunday.
Both the EFF, which was secured in September 2024, and the RSF, secured in May 2025, are key programs that Pakistan deems crucial for stabilizing its fragile economy. SLAs reached between the IMF and member countries have to be approved by the Executive Board before disbursements can take place.
Pakistan has undertaken major economic reforms in the past, which include removing subsidies from fuel, broadening its tax base, privatizing loss-making state-owned enterprises and introducing major changes to its power sector, as mandated by the IMF in exchange for its loan programs.
Islamabad considers the IMF programs as crucial for the South Asian country to stave off a balance-of-payments crisis and escape its macroeconomic troubles that have long plagued the country in the form of low foreign exchange reserves and a weak national currency.
The IMF noted in March that Pakistan’s policies have continued to strengthen the national economy and rebuild market confidence. It, however, warned that the Iran war casts a cloud over Pakistan’s economic outlook as volatile energy prices and tighter global financial conditions risk putting upward pressure on inflation, and weigh on growth and the current account.
