July 4, 2019 (MLN): Foreign Economic Assistance has been an importance source of finance to enhance economic growth in Pakistan.
Pakistan has received a sum of $9.76 billion as foreign economic assistance from multiple bilateral and multilateral sources in first eleven months (July-May) of the current fiscal year, against a budget estimate of $9.69 billion for the whole year.
This 11-month disbursements diminished by 6.5% compared to same period last year.
While, in the month of May alone, it received $874.8 million as foreign economic assistance which is 2.6x higher than the amount of $330.5 million received in last month, briefed Economic Affairs Divisions (EAD) in its monthly report on disbursement of foreign assistance.
Foreign assistance extended from multilateral sources during the month of May 2019 adds up to $195.9 million, with the IDA and IDB (S-term) emerging as the main source having lent $82.59 million and $75.7 million repetitively.
On cumulative basis, during 11MFY19, Pakistan received a sum $1.5 billion economic assistance from multilateral sources with the IDB (S-term) appeared as the highest source of multilateral financing with an assistance of $648 million.
The second highest source of multilateral financing is ADB with an assistance of $453.2 million in July-May FY19 period.
Another significant source of assistance was IDA with a cumulative disbursement of $287.99 million.
Similarly, other multilateral lenders like AIIB, IBRD, Eco-Trade Bank, MDTF and IFAD etc. also provided necessary budgetary and project-related support to Pakistan.
The total disbursement from multilateral sources in 11MFY19 is about 44% of the budget estimate of $3.4 billion for the whole year.
Coming to bilateral foreign loans, the government of China and its financial institutions provided nearly $2.12 billion or 85.4% of the total bilateral loans received during the 11-months of the current fiscal year. In addition to this, in the month of May alone, China disbursed around $128.87 million.
Moreover, UK and USA disbursed around $80.4 million and $70.5 million respectively in July-May FY19.
Overall, Pakistan has collectively received a sum of $2.48 billion as bilateral loans, which largely exceeds the budget estimate by $1.2 billion.
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