IMF board to now meet on February 2 for Pakistan's sixth review

By
Business Desk
Visitors are silhouetted against the logo of the International Monetary Fund at the main venue for the IMF and World Bank annual meeting in Tokyo October 10, 2012. — Reuters/File
Visitors are silhouetted against the logo of the International Monetary Fund at the main venue for the IMF and World Bank annual meeting in Tokyo October 10, 2012. — Reuters/File

  • IMF website shows Pakistan's discussion would be taken up on Feb 2.
  • Earlier, the sixth review was to be held on January 28.
  • Pakistan and IMF reached a staff-level agreement in Nov 2021.


The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will now meet on February 2 for Pakistan's sixth review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), it was learnt on Tuesday.

The IMF website, which lists its Executive Board Calendar, showed Pakistan's discussion would be taken up on February 2.

The discussion, "2021 Article IV Consultation, Sixth Review Under the Extended Arrangement Under the Extended Fund Facility, and Requests for Waivers of Nonobservance of Performance Criteria and Rephasing of Access", comes after Pakistan's finance ministry once again requested that the meeting be moved to forward.

Earlier, the finance ministry had announced that the sixth review of the $6-billion EFF would be held on January 28.

Pakistan has so far accomplished one prior condition for getting the mini-budget passed from the Parliament, while the second key condition for passing the controversial State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Amendment Bill 2021 was still awaited.

The National Assembly had granted its assent to the SBP Amendment Bill but the approval of the Senate is still needed.

Last year in November, Pakistan and the IMF reached a staff-level agreement on policies and reforms needed to complete the sixth review under the $6 billion EFF.