Pakistan, Oct. 10 -- Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have made "significant progress" toward a staff-level agreement on reviews of the South Asian country's $8.4 loans, the lender said late Wednesday.

The statement came at the end of a two-week visit by an IMF mission, led by Iva Petrova, to Karachi and Islamabad to review a $7 billion, 37-month Extended Fund Facility Islamabad secured last year, and a $1.4 billion, 28-month Resilience and Sustainability Facility secured in May.

Pakistan's program implementation remained strong and broadly aligned with the authorities' commitments, while progress was made in discussions on fiscal consolidation to strengthen public finances while providing needed flood recovery support...