Morning News: Consensus eludes Pakistan, IMF over revenue, expenditure - By Vector Research
May 29 2025
Vector Securities
- Pakistan and the IMF have so far been unable to reach a consensus on the total revenue and expenditure framework for the upcoming budget. Although both sides held informal virtual parleys on Tuesday, nothing concrete has been finalised so far. With change of guard at the IMF, as Ms. Eva assumed the charge as Mission Chief following the completion of Nathan Porter’s tenure, the finalisation of budgetary numbers has not yet been accomplished. However, both sides have kick-started virtual talks with the anticipation to undertake number crunching on revenue and expenditure side by the end of the current week. Then the IMF will have to endorse the proposed revenue measures in order to jack up the collection to the desired mark for the next financial year 2025-26.
- China has assured Pakistan of relending $3.7 billion in commercial loans, denominated in Chinese currency, before the end of June, including $2.4 billion that is maturing next month, in a move that will help keep the foreign exchange reserves in double-digits. Unlike in the past, when Beijing has given loans in non-Chinese currency too, this time Pakistan's strategic ally has decided not to give loans in the United States currency as part of its drive to decouple the economy from the dollar; the government sources told. They said that China gave these assurances during recent meetings, aimed at securing the refinancing of loans maturing between March and June 2025.
- The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has purchased $5.9 billion from the currency market since June 2024 to bolster its reserves despite receiving support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and friendly countries. The higher remittance inflows provided sufficient room for the State Bank to purchase dollars, but it was unable to achieve the target it had projected for itself. Following unexpectedly higher inflows from overseas Pakistanis, the SBP revised its foreign exchange reserves target to $14 billion and remittances to $38bn for FY25.