The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has assessed the Pakistani authorities’ performance against the quantitative performance criteria (QPCs), Indicative Targets (ITs), and Structural Benchmarks (SBs) under the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) as satisfactory by the end of December. This evaluation is outlined in the IMF’s report titled “Second and final review under the SBA.”
According to the report, the authorities successfully achieved all seven quantitative Performance Criteria (PCs) by the end of December 2023. These include meeting targets such as the floors on net international reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), targeted cash transfer spending, ceilings on net domestic assets of the SBP, and management of the SBP’s FX swap/forward book, among others.
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Furthermore, both continuous PCs regarding zero new flow of SBP credit to the government and zero external public payment arrears were also achieved by the authorities within the specified timeline.
In addition to the QPCs, the authorities met all four Indicative Targets (ITs) for end-December 2023, which involved areas like budgetary spending on health and education, FBR net tax revenues, ceilings on net accumulation of tax refund arrears, and managing power sector payment arrears.
The report also highlights that the Structural Benchmarks were successfully met, including actions like the BISP inflation adjustment, notification of the semiannual gas tariff adjustment determination, and developing a plan to strengthen the SBP’s internal control systems in lending operations.
However, the work towards amending four dedicated State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) laws by the end of November 2023 was not achieved. Nonetheless, progress is ongoing to align legislation with requirements, and the timing of its completion is contingent on the recently established National Assembly.
