ISLAMABAD- The World Bank has approved a total of 12 billion US dollars loan for Pakistan to be disbursed in the next 5 years, officials said today. One billion dollars was approved for energy and revenue support during the current financial year, the Finance Ministry said.

The other land mark achievement of the day was the approval of Country Partnership Strategy under which Pakistan will get $11 billion in the shape of project loans and budgetary support, a Finance Ministry statement said.

It is expected that $ one billion would be transferred to Pakistan in the next week. The amount will increase Pakistan's Forex reserves substantially. The World Bank loan will incur two percent interest per annum and the government of Pakistan will be saving net 10.5 percent in payment of interest on 100 billion rupees. Resultantly, there will be no net increase in overall public debt.

The World Bank loans are purely concessionary in nature with repayment schedule spanning over a period of thirty years including five years grace period and the interest rate will be nominal at the rate of two percent per annum.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has congratulated the whole nation on this success. He said the response from the World Bank shows the trust of the World Bank’s authorities on the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.