ISLAMABAD / KARACHI, October 6, 2026. Pakistan's talks with the International Monetary Fund are close to a conclusion, and the stock market is not waiting calmly. Negotiators are working through policy language while investors sell on geopolitics and oil, so this week's headlines are really about two different clocks.
Where the talks stand
An IMF team led by Iva Petrova is in Islamabad for the fourth review of the Extended Fund Facility and the third review of the Resilience and Sustainability Facility. A successful outcome would lead to a recommendation to the board to release $1.2 billion across two tranches.
The talks entered the drafting phase when the IMF shared the first draft of the Memorandum of Financial and Economic Policies. The mission is expected to stay until around the middle of this week. If the two sides can't agree on the text, discussions will continue virtually.
A staff-level agreement is only the first step. It still needs Executive Board approval, and current expectations point to a release by the end of November or early December. Nobody should expect dollars in the State Bank's account this month.
The sticking points
The friction is mostly in the energy sector. Power-sector circular debt reached Rs1.675 trillion by the end of June 2026, breaching the agreed target, and the IMF wants measures to stop it growing further. Islamabad has also briefed the Fund on a timeline for private-sector participation in distribution companies, including FESCO, GEPCO and IESCO.
The external numbers are another point of debate. The Fund has reportedly pushed for a higher current account deficit projection for FY2027, with figures of up to $4 billion under discussion, against the Finance Ministry's earlier estimate of about $2.7 billion. The review also lands after a significant revenue shortfall against some programme expectations. Officials have told the mission that the Gulf war and disruption in the Strait of Hormuz cut first-quarter revenue and slowed economic activity.
Why the PSX is nervous
You might expect a nearly finished IMF review to lift the market. This time it isn't, because investors are looking past Islamabad.
On Monday, the KSE-100 fell 2,288 points, or 1.36%, to close at 165,867. Only 8 of its constituents rose while 91 fell, so the selling was broad. Analysts blamed domestic political uncertainty and elevated oil prices. The week before had already been rough: stalled US-Iran negotiations, a global bond sell-off that pushed US Treasury yields to their highest since 2002, and a widening domestic trade deficit pulled the index down 1.5%.
The pattern is familiar. In past IMF cycles, a staff-level agreement was a clear upside trigger. In March 2025, for example, the index jumped over 1,100 points on the news. Today the IMF deal is largely priced in, so the market is reacting to the things the programme can't control: oil, Gulf tensions and global yields.
What it means for inflation
Inflation is the number to watch. The central bank reported that headline inflation rose to 11.1% year-on-year in August, from 9.2% in July, well above its 5–7% medium-term target. On September 14 it kept the policy rate at 11.5%.
IMF conditions push in two directions here:
- Energy pricing and subsidy reform tend to raise prices in the short run, since removing or trimming subsidies passes costs on to consumers.
- Fiscal discipline supports the rupee and reserves, which limits imported inflation over time.
The next Monetary Policy Committee meeting is on October 26, and a hold looks more likely than a cut while inflation is this high. The rate decision matters for the stock market as well, because rate-sensitive sectors such as banks and cement react quickly to the central bank's tone.
The growth picture
The macro foundation is better than the market mood suggests. The central bank said FX reserves passed the end-June target of $18 billion, S&P upgraded Pakistan's sovereign rating to "B", and it targets reserves of $20.2 billion by the end of December 2026. Pakistan also posted a primary fiscal surplus of 2.9% of GDP in FY26, above the IMF target, and large-scale manufacturing grew about 5%, its strongest in roughly four years. In July, remittances rose 13% to $3.6 billion.
The weak spot is the external account. Pakistan recorded a current account deficit of $543 million in July–August of FY27, and a prolonged Gulf conflict would hurt trade with GCC countries and could affect remittances from more than a million Pakistani workers there.
The takeaway
For ordinary Pakistanis, the IMF money is less important than the policy conditions that come with it. These talks will shape energy tariffs, tax effort and how much room the government has to support growth.
For investors, the message is to expect noise. A staff-level agreement would remove one risk but not the oil and geopolitical ones. Whatever the final numbers say, the next few weeks will show whether Pakistan's stabilisation can hold through an external shock it can't control.
Disclaimer: This article is for information only and is not investment advice.
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