ISLAMABAD: After Pakistan’s eagerly awaited general elections on February 8, which are set to take place, it is expected that an IMF review team will be sent to hold negotiations with Islamabad.
According to The News, the review team is scheduled to travel to Pakistan to hold discussions about the $3 billion Standby Arrangement (SBA) program.
The News was provided with confirmation from high-ranking officials that the “Fund has not yet confirmed the exact schedule for conducting the second review, so the upcoming review talks are expected to be held after the general elections”.
The IMF also made a suggestion in its most recent staff report that the second review’s date was changed when the SBA agreement was signed in July 2023.
The second review was scheduled for March 1, 2024, with an end date of December 20, 2023.
The review completion deadline was shifted to March 15, 2024, by the Pakistani side, who also suggested that more talks for a review might take place after the elections on February 8, 2024.
The current SBA program of the International Monetary Fund is expected to conclude on April 12, 2024. If the second evaluation is finished by the middle of March, the Executive Board of the Fund will have enough time to approve the last $1.1 billion tranche for Pakistan by the second of April in 2024.
It is unclear how and when there would be a change from the SBA to another medium-term program.
There had been earlier allegations that the mainstream political parties requested to complete the second review while the caretaker government was in place. There is still a possibility that the Fund review will be completed prior to the establishment of the new administration.
A lot of insiders think that the new government was supposed to be formed by the end of February following the general elections, therefore the IMF review team might come to Islamabad ahead of time to finish the second review.
The IMF will return to Pakistan in April 2024 in an attempt to reach a more comprehensive agreement on the new medium-term loan program, which would serve as the foundation for the formulation of the upcoming 2024–25 budget.Whether the next administration may sign the new IMF program before the budget is announced or if it must wait for the upcoming elected parliament to approve the budget is up to them.
