Washington, D.C. (GNP): Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, held a series of meetings with the senior management of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including Dan Katz, First Deputy Managing Director, Nigel Clarke, Deputy Managing Director, Jihad Azour, Director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department, and Iva Petrova, Mission Chief for Pakistan.
During the meetings, the Finance Minister reviewed Pakistan’s macroeconomic performance and progress under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), and the broader IMF-supported reform programme.
The Finance Minister highlighted the country’s improved fiscal and external balances, achievement of revenue targets, stronger foreign exchange reserves, record remittances, and an improved current account position.
Discussions also covered tax and energy reforms, privatization, tariff rationalization, debt management, diversification of financing sources, and Pakistan’s return to international capital markets.
Both sides also exchanged views on human capital development, women’s economic participation, demographic challenges, technology-led growth, and private sector-led, export-oriented development.
The Finance Minister concluded the meetings by thanking the Fund for recognizing Pakistan’s strong programme ownership and reform progress, while reaffirming the Government’s commitment to fiscal discipline, policy credibility, structural reforms, and long-term economic transformation.
Dan Katz has been the IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director since October 2025. In that role, he leads the Fund’s work on multilateral surveillance and related policies, including on monetary policy, financial markets, debt, and international economic integration. He also oversees bilateral surveillance for many global systemically important economies and large lending programs and represents the Fund at multilateral fora like the G7 and G20.
Katz most recently served as Chief of Staff at the United States Department of the Treasury. He was the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on a wide range of domestic and international matters, including on some of the most consequential international economic issues involving the United States.
Katz has a long association with Treasury that stretches over more than a decade, including roles as a Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for International Affairs, Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for International Markets, and a policy advisor in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
In addition to his work at Treasury, Katz spent several years in the private sector, where he worked at a global macro hedge fund, and as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. He was also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute focusing on central banking, international economic issues, and economic statecraft, and served as an advisor to the Commander of U.S. forces in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Katz received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from New York University School of Law.
Sohail Majeed is a Special Correspondent at The Diplomatic Insight. He has twelve plus years of experience in journalism & reporting. He covers International Affairs, Diplomacy, UN, Sports, Climate Change, Economy, Technology, and Health.
