IMF appreciates Pakistan’s handling of oil shock without supply disruptions

Profit reported that the International Monetary Fund has praised Pakistan for how it handled the oil crisis across six months of the US-Iran conflict. The country avoided interruptions to petroleum supplies as well as any extra strain on the federal budget, despite pressures from the wider region.

The appraisal emerged from talks between a visiting IMF staff mission and Pakistani officials, during which the Fund reviewed how petroleum supplies and prices were handled amid heightened uncertainty. Informed sources said prices were managed without any need for extra budgetary support, and that products stayed available throughout. The Fund also compared Pakistan with several regional economies that faced shortages, higher costs for their budgets or state-owned firms, or both.

The assessment is significant because regional instability can threaten fuel-importing economies through supply risks and the fiscal expense of shielding consumers from global energy price swings. Pakistan depends on imported crude and petroleum products, so its domestic supply and pricing are sensitive to such shocks. The mission's focus was on whether authorities could contain these pressures without passing costs to the budget or letting them cause domestic shortages.