Abdul Ghani

Pakistan has paid a massive $2.57 billion (SDR 1.9 billion) in interest and surcharges to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 2008 while receiving a total of $22.86 billion (SDR 17.4 billion) in financial assistance across multiple IMF programmes, according to a document available with Wealth Pakistan. The data, drawn from official documents titled “Year-wise Disbursements, Interest Paid and Repayments under IMF Programmes by Pakistan (2008 till Sept 2025)”, offers the clearest picture yet of Pakistan’s heavy reliance on IMF financing over nearly two decades.

According to the document, between 2008 and 2025, Pakistan entered into seven major IMF arrangements — the Stand-By Arrangement 2008, the Extended Fund Facility 2013, the Stand-By Arrangement 2023, the Extended Fund Facility 2024, the Emergency Natural Disaster Assistance 2010, Extended Fund Facility 2019 and the Rapid Financing Instrument Loan 2020. Collectively, these programmes brought in around $22.86 billion (SDR 17.4 billion) in inflows aimed at stabilising Pakistan’s external accounts and covering fiscal shortfalls.

The largest inflows occurred in 2009 ($2.75 billion, SDR 2.1 billion), 2016 ($1.89 billion, SDR 793 million), 2021 ($462 million, SDR 350 million), and 2024 ($2.79 billion, SDR 2.11 billion). According to relevant officials, these inflows have been critical in preventing default-like scenarios and replenishing reserves during severe balance-of-payments crises. Pakistan’s cumulative interest payments to the IMF now total about $2.57 billion, including $530 million (SDR 405 million) in surcharges.

The heaviest annual interest payments occurred in 2024 ($514 million, SDR 376 million), 2023 ($445 million, SDR 325 million), 2022 ($195 million, SDR 142 million), and 2021 ($135 million, SDR 98.9 million). The surcharge component alone has cost the country more than half a billion US dollars — triggered by Pakistan’s prolonged borrowing beyond its IMF quota, which draws higher penalty rates. The country has also repaid $14.87 billion (SDR 10.8 billion) in principal under different IMF programmes.

Major repayments were made between 2014 and 2016 for the 2008 Stand-By Arrangement, totalling $2.08 billion (SDR 1.5 billion), and between 2018 and 2024 for the 2013 Extended Fund Facility, amounting to $6.5 billion (SDR 4.9 billion). These numbers highlight Pakistan’s mounting external debt burden and the steady rollover of obligations under successive IMF arrangements. Collectively, the data shows a cycle of borrowing and repayment that continues to define Pakistan’s economic landscape.

Each new IMF facility has arrived before the previous one was fully retired, reinforcing structural weaknesses — particularly stagnant exports, chronic fiscal imbalances, and policy delays —that keep the economy trapped in short-term fixes. Economists say Pakistan’s repeated returns to the Fund illustrate the absence of sustained domestic reforms. The latest Extended Fund Facility (2024-25), worth approximately $7 billion is now considered vital to Pakistan’s short-term stability, though it will also expand future repayment and interest liabilities.

While these disbursements have temporarily restored investor confidence and supported the currency, they increase the long-term cost of external dependence. The numbers illustrate not only the magnitude of the country’s engagement with the Fund but also the steep financial cost of its dependency — a dynamic that has shaped Pakistan’s macroeconomic story for more than 15 years.

Credit: INP-WealthPk