Foreign borrowing in February diminishes by 40%

March 29, 2019 (MLN): Pakistan received a sum of $225 million in February 2019 as foreign economic assistance from multiple bilateral and multilateral sources, briefed Economic Affairs Divisions (EAD) in its monthly report on disbursement of foreign assistance.

Adding this amount to the cumulative disbursement in July – January 2018-19 period, brings the total borrowing in ongoing fiscal year to $2.9 billion against a budget estimate of 9.7 billion for the whole year.

Compared to last month, the disbursement in February 2019 diminished by 40%.

Foreign assistance extended from multilateral sources during the month adds up to $127 million, with the IDB (S-term) emerging as the main source having lent $91.4 million. This pushes up total disbursement from IDB (S-term) in last eight months to $388.8 million.

The second highest source of multilateral financing is ADB with an assistance of $19.25 million in February and $376 million in July-Feb period.

Another significant source of assistance in February was IDA with a disbursement of $14.7 million, and cumulative disbursement of $142.8 million.

The total disbursement from multilateral sources in ongoing fiscal year so far, has been recorded at $976.4 million against a budget estimate of $3.4 billion for the whole year.

Coming to Bilateral donors, China is unsurprisingly the greatest source of assistance in February with a loan of $85.3 million. This bring China’s total disbursement in eight months to $ 1.2 billion, which largely exceeds the annual budget estimate of $840.9 million from the country.

Bilateral donors collectively disbursed a sum of $98 million in February and $1.47 billion cumulatively.

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