Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said Pakistan has held “very constructive engagement” with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, expressing confidence that the remaining issues are not “showstoppers”. He expressed hope of finalising a staff-level agreement (SLA) early next week during his visit to Washington with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor and finance secretary.
Aurangzeb gave his remarks while addressing the Saudi investors’ delegation at the Overseas Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Karachi.
“We have a few outstanding issues [with the IMF]; however, from my perspective, they are no showstoppers. We will continue these discussions virtually tonight and into the weekend. Hopefully, early next week, when the SBP governor, finance secretary and I are in Washington, we hope to get moving with the SLA,” he said.
Aurangzeb shared that he would leave for Washington tonight to join the 2025 IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings, scheduled from Monday, October 13, to Saturday, October 18.
This comes after Pakistan and the IMF made significant progress toward an SLA following review talks under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), the Washington-based lender said after concluding its mission to the country. An IMF team, led by Iva Petrova, visited Karachi and Islamabad from September 24 to October 8, 2025, to hold discussions on the second review under the EFF and the first review under the RSF.
Meanwhile, Aurangzeb, while addressing virtually, said that the country has achieved macroeconomic stability, with three global rating agencies now well aligned. He added that structural reforms are underway with respect to taxation and energy.
“We are trying to learn from the Vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia. The way things have been executed in KSA, all indexes are well ahead of where they needed to be by 2030.” He shared that on Thursday, the cabinet formally approved a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement recently signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. “We have a confluence of factors in Pakistan, where we have macro stability and we have tailwinds from a geopolitical front,” he added.
Talking about the recent floods, the finance minister shared that the government has completed rapid assessments. “We are quite clear that we are going to repurpose what we have in terms of our existing resources. As we move towards a more in-depth post-damage need assessment, things might move where we might require external help,” said Aurangzeb.
The Minister also apprised the participants of two major reform tracks being personally led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on taxation reforms and Pakistan’s digital transformation towards a cashless economy.
He pointed out that while Pakistan’s recorded economy stands at $411 billion, nearly half remains undocumented, implying that “the real size of our economy is close to a trillion dollars.”
He added that digitisation and documentation will be pivotal in broadening the tax base and improving fiscal discipline.
Concluding his remarks, Aurangzeb extended his best wishes to His Highness Prince Mansour and the Saudi delegation for their engagements in Karachi and Lahore, and expressed hope for fruitful deliberations and enhanced investment partnerships between the business communities of both countries.
He also looked forward to meeting the Saudi leadership again during the forthcoming Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh. A day ago, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah hosted Prince Mansour bin Mohammed Al Saud, Chairman of the Saudi-Pak Joint Business Council, and a 30-member distinguished business delegation at the CM House. Two key memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed, marking significant progress in K-Electric’s ownership and future collaboration framework.
The first MoU was signed for the sale and purchase of shares in KES Power Ltd. The second MoU was signed between K-Electric Limited and Trident Energy Ltd to explore strategic cooperation and investment opportunities in Pakistan’s power sector.