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” as it gave its assessment conducted during a recent visit to the country. 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. This would be followed by an approval by the IMF’s Executive Board for the disbursement of about $1.1bn by early next month. In an end-of-mission statement issued today, the IMF stated: “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.” It further said that positive discussions were held on the “implementation of Pakistan’s structural reform agenda to accelerate growth, while strengthening social protection and rebuilding health and education spending”. More to follow