Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) failed to finalise a staff-level agreement for the release of the next $1 billion loan tranche, as negotiations ended without a final decision. Talks will continue in the coming days to resolve outstanding issues between the two sides.
The IMF said progress had been made during the discussions. However, several financial and policy matters still need to be addressed before the agreement can be concluded.
IMF mission chief Iva Petrova stated that both sides discussed key economic reforms and fiscal measures. She said the talks focused on strengthening public finances, maintaining tight monetary policy and improving the performance of Pakistan’s energy sector.
Despite the progress, some major issues remain unresolved. Officials involved in the discussions said the IMF raised concerns about large fiscal discrepancies in government accounts and questioned certain revenue and spending figures.
According to government data, fiscal accounts showed a discrepancy of around Rs413 billion during the first half of the fiscal year. Around Rs71 billion of this gap was related to federal government accounts.
Officials said these differences mainly resulted from reporting delays, accounting adjustments and differences in data between financial institutions and government departments. Variations in commercial bank deposits also contributed to the discrepancy.
