The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is analyzing Pakistan’s fiscal situation, especially the flood-related expenses and impact, which it believes have altered the macroeconomic assumptions of the fund’s program.
In response to a media inquiry about the delay in the 9th review, the Ministry of Finance. Ishaq Dar stated, “IMF understands that the floods have altered the macroeconomic assumptions on which the plan was based; thus, their team is doing a careful investigation of the data presented.”
The two parties had been virtually engaged for over a month to finalize the ninth review this month so that the next tranche of approximately $1.18 billion could be approved by the IMF’s executive board and disbursed before the Christmas and new year’s vacations.
The policy-level negotiations have yet to be finalized, but the finance ministry has stated that the IMF team would soon visit Islamabad to complete the ninth review.
The standard method requires the fund staff mission to establish an agreement with authorities on program implementation, followed by a minimum of two weeks for board members to convene based on staff agreement. A further delay would render the IMF executive board unavailable until the first week of January.
