Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Wednesday that the government is making progress with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and expects to secure approval from its Executive Board on the $7-billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) next month.

“We are making good progress with IMF to secure Board approval during September,” he told Business Recorder via message.

His statement comes after it was widely expected that Pakistan’s agenda would be taken up by the IMF Executive Board during August.

However, Pakistan’s name was not included on the Executive Board’s schedule for this month, raising concerns about the timeline for the disbursement of the loan.

The exclusion from the agenda from August also stoked fears that there were still some pending items on Pakistan’s to-do list including securing additional external financing.

The IMF did not respond to a request for comment.

Pakistan and the IMF reached a staff-level agreement on July 12 for a 37-month loan programme.

But the final approval will need to come from the IMF Executive Board after Pakistan secures “timely confirmation of necessary financing assurances from development and bilateral partners.”

This includes rollovers or disbursements on loans from Pakistan’s long-time allies Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and China.