Pakistan Faces $6bn Trade Data Gap In IMF Talks

Abdullah Hussain (@Abdulla99267510) Published October 16, 2025 | 02:18 PM

IMF raises concern as Pakistan fails to resolve a $6 billion annual trade data discrepancy, prompting formation of a new review committee.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-Oct,16, 2025) As Pakistan moves toward finalizing a $7 billion staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government has yet to address a persistent $6 billion annual discrepancy in trade data, raising concerns among policymakers.

According to official documents, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), operating under the Ministry of Planning, has failed to resolve the issue despite repeated scrutiny. During the IMF mission’s visit to Islamabad from September 25 to October 8, 2025, the matter was raised again, prompting the government to hurriedly form a new committee.

The newly constituted committee will be led by PBS and will include representatives from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Ministry of Planning’s International Trade and Finance division.

The Ministry of Planning attributed the widening data gap to the transition of the trade reporting system from PRAL to Pakistan Single Window (PSW).

Under the General Statistics Act of 2011, PBS serves as the sole national regulator for all statistical matters, including trade and financial data monitoring, harmonization, and analysis.

Sources said the trade data discrepancy reached $6 billion in the last fiscal year alone, while over the past five years, the cumulative gap has ballooned to between $25 and $30 billion.