IMF Mission to Visit Pakistan for Extended Fund Facility Review

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb announced that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team will visit Pakistan at the end of September.

This visit is for the next review under a $7 billion loan program called the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). If the review goes well, Pakistan will receive the third installment of $1 billion from the IMF.

So far, Pakistan has received $2.1 billion from this 37-month loan program. The government has completed all preparations for the upcoming review.

On the topic of privatization, the minister shared that Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has reopened its flights to Europe and the UK. This has attracted interest from several big companies who want to invest.

While there have been improvements in running state-owned companies, many of them still face heavy losses. These companies have lost around Rs6 trillion. The government plans to privatize 24 such companies and is working on improving their management.

The minister also mentioned that reforms are happening in civil service pensions, and the number of employees is being reduced in 43 ministries and over 400 departments. Privatization work will speed up this year.

Additionally, Pakistan managed to reduce its debt servicing costs by Rs1 trillion in the last financial year.