Pakistan has started talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Islamabad. The IMF team is reviewing how Pakistan is doing under its $7 billion loan programme. If the review goes well, Pakistan could receive about $1.2 billion.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb held an opening meeting online with the IMF team on Tuesday. The team is led by Iva Petrova.
Before moving to Islamabad, the team spent a week in Karachi, where it held talks with the State Bank of Pakistan about monetary policy, inflation and the exchange rate.
Pakistani officials told the IMF about the state of the economy, credit rating improvements and the investment climate. They said the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has pushed up fuel prices and slowed economic activity.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said it expects to meet its tax target of Rs3.053 trillion for July to September. It estimates the ongoing conflict has cost about Rs144 billion in lost revenue.
The IMF team was also told about a new rule for government officers. About 10,000 federal civil servants must submit details of their assets online by October 30. The digitised declarations will be made public by December 2026 or January 2027. Provincial civil servants are not part of the scheme at this stage.
The IMF team will assess Pakistan’s performance up to June 2026. If both reviews are completed, the IMF Executive Board will decide on releasing about $1 billion from the main loan and $200 million from the climate-related fund.
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