The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the late hours of Friday termed Pakistan’s implementation of its $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) as “strong” but analysts noted that a staff-level agreement (SLA) had not been signed after talks with the Fund’s review mission.

The statement comes hours after Pakistan and the IMF concluded the first biannual review of the $7 billion loan programme on a positive note, without imposing additional revenue measures.

Instead, the government committed to maintaining fiscal targets through expenditure controls, particularly the development programme.

In an end-of-mission statement, mission chief Nathan Porter said: “Programme implementation has been strong, and the discussions have made considerable progress in several areas, including the planned fiscal consolidation to durably reduce public debt, maintenance of sufficiently tight monetary policy to maintain low inflation, acceleration of cost-reducing reforms to improve energy sector viability.”

An IMF team, led by Porter, visited Pakistan from February 24 to March 14, the statement recalled.

The Fund noted that it held discussions on the first review of the loan programme supported by the EFF “and on a possible new arrangement under the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF)”.

“The IMF and the Pakistani authorities made significant progress toward reaching a staff-level agreement (SLA) on the........

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