ISLAMABAD-Pakistan has received $6.5 billion loans from international lenders in the first five months (July to November) of the current fiscal year.
Pakistan has overall taken foreign loans of $6.5 billion during July to November period of the current fiscal year. The country has received $4.3 billion in budget and project financing and another $2.2 billion came in State Bank of Pakistan’s account. The inflows helped in building the country’s foreign exchange reserves, which earlier were depleting. The major financing $3 billion came from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The IMF disbursed $1.2 billion.
The government had budgeted $17.619 billion from multiple financing sources for the current fiscal year including $17.384 billion loans and $234.60 million grants. The government received only 36.89 percent in the period from July to November in the current financial year.
According to the latest data, the country has received $508 million as CATIC (PAF), $786.64 million from multilateral, $583 million from bilateral, $407.5 million from Naya Pakistan Certificate and $2 billion as time deposit loan in the first five months of this fiscal year.
In multilateral sources, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has disbursed $120.47 million, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) $32.44 million, $402.5 million from IDA of the World Bank and $100 million as IsDB (Short-term). In bilateral sources, Pakistan has received $500 million from Saudi Arabia as oil facilities, $23.35 million from the United States, $10.98 million from Korea and $20.15 million from France.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are expected to increase in the months to come. Pakistan is expecting to receive inflows from international financial institutions in the next couple of months as the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Executive Board would meet on January 11 next year to approve the next tranche worth of $700 million for Pakistan.
The country is expecting $1.8 billion from the IMF and $1.5-4.5 billion from various international financial institutions like Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB) & AIIB. Pakistan is expecting to receive funds from international financial institutions after the IMF deal. The staff-level agreement would enable approvals of $1 billion in loans from the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank $250 million. According to officials, these agreements were already at an advanced stage and were pending for the IMF’s agreement. Talks with some other commercial entities were also at an advanced stage to materialise $3.5 billion projected commercial inflows. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) had approved three proj¬ects totalling $658.8 million to help Pakistan achieve its goal of more in¬clusive and sustainable growth and development.