He briefed representatives from JP Morgan, Standard Chartered, Jefferies, Barclays, Citibank, Bank of America Securities, and major credit rating agencies during engagements on the sidelines of the IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C., from October 13-18, 2025.
Governor SBP briefed participants on the substantial progress Pakistan has made in stabilising its economy. He highlighted that a prudent monetary policy, combined with sustained fiscal consolidation efforts, has led to macroeconomic stability in the country. The stage is now set for the next phase of revival in investment and economic growth.
Mr Ahmad highlighted that headline inflation has declined sharply over the past two years, reaching 5.6 per cent in September 2025. Moreover, core inflation has also come down significantly from over 22 per cent to less than 8 per cent, and is expected to moderate further in the coming months. Notwithstanding the impact of the recent floods, headline inflation is expected to stabilise within its target range of 5 to 7 per cent in the medium term.
Regarding the external account, the Governor informed that Pakistan’s FX buffers have registered substantial qualitative as well as quantitative improvements. SBP has improved the stability and transparency of the FX market through structural reforms in exchange companies and promotion of remittances through formal channels.
These efforts have brought stability in the FX market, allowing SBP to strategically purchase $20 billion during the last three years from the interbank market to build its FX reserves, which have increased around five times since bottoming out in February 2023. At the same time, SBP’s forward liabilities have also reduced significantly.
Mr Ahmad informed that Pakistan’s public sector external debt increased only marginally since June 2022. He emphasised that this improvement in FX buffers reflects SBP’s policy focus on building FX buffers to withstand external shocks. He also shared that SBP is targeting to increase FX reserves to $17.5 billion by June 2026.
He informed that the results of the tough yet necessary policy and regulatory changes are now materialising in the form of contained inflation and current account deficit, and a more sustainable pickup in economic growth. This has provided the space to the government to undertake the needed structural reforms to address longstanding bottlenecks straining sustained high economic growth.
