Pakistan has paid $2.69bn interest against various IMF lendings, says govt
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan paid a total of SDR 1.90 billion (equivalent to USD 2.69 billion) in interest under various IMF programmes, which includes surcharges amounting to SDR 401.24 million from 2008 to June 2025.
According to the document of the Economic Affairs Division, the year-wise disbursement under the IMF Programme to Pakistan amounted to SDR 17.45 billion during the last 17 years. Under the Standby Arrangement 2008-2010, the government received SDR 4.94 billion, under “the Emergency Natural Disaster Assistance 2010”, SDR 297 million under “the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) 2013”, SDR 4.39 billion under “the EFF”, SDR 3.04 billion under “the Rapid Financing Instrument Loan 2020”, SDR 1.02 billion under the Standby Arrangement 2023”, SDR 2.25 billion under “the EFF 2024”, SDR 1.52 billion under ‘the Standby Arrangement Programme 2008”.
The government paid interest of SDR 257.5 million during the period 2009-15. Under the Emergency Natural Disaster Assistance 2010, it paid SDR 14.5 million mark-up during the period 2010-15, whereas under the EFF, the government paid SDR 543.6 million during the 2013-25 period.
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Apart from this, the government paid interest of SDR 411.4 million on the Extended Facility 2019 during the period 2019-25. Under the Rapid Financing Instrument Loan 2020, the government bore interest of SDR 110.1 million during the period 2020-25, whereas under the Standby arrangement 2023, it paid SDR 142.23 million as interest during the period 2023-25. Under the EFF 2024, the government paid SDR 17.6 million during the period 2024-25.
The highest amount of mark-up paid by the government was SDR 376 million during CY (calendar year) 2025. In CY23, it paid SDR 325.79 million and SDR 142.6 million in CY22. In the last 17 years, the lowest mark-up was paid to the IMF of SDR 24 million was in 2014, and it was the only year in which the government paid no surcharge. In 2015, the government also paid a low mark-up of SDR 27.6 million.
It may be mentioned that the IMF team reached a staff-level agreement with Pakistan on October 15, the second review of the 37-month Extended Arrangement under the EFF and the first review of the 28-month arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).
The staff-level agreement is subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board. Upon approval, Pakistan will have access to about USD 1.0 billion (SDR 760 million) under the EFF and about USD 200 million (SDR 154 million) under the RSF, bringing total disbursements under the two arrangements to about USD 3.3 billion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025