November 23, 2021 (MLN): Pakistan borrowed fresh external loans of $3.90 billion in the first four months of the ongoing fiscal i.e., July- Oct FY22 from multiple financing sources against the annual budget estimates of $14.09bn for the entire fiscal year FY22, the latest monthly report by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) showed on Monday.
In the month of October, the country received foreign assistance of $692.57 million from multilateral sources.
Out of $3.90bn, the government received $2.31bn or 59% in the form of program/budgetary support assistance to restructure Pakistan’s economy, $446.31mn for short-term credit, and $18.37mn for TDPs while $1.12bn has been obtained for project aid financing.
Going into details made available by EAD, the disbursement from bilateral and multilateral development partners maintained a strong trend as it totaled $1.99bn of foreign economic assistance during 4MFY22. These healthy inflows also helped to improve foreign exchange reserves. Meanwhile, the government borrowed $866.43mn from foreign commercial banks that included a $319.93mn loan from Standard Chartered Bank London, $61mn from Ajman Bank, $215mn from Dubai Bank while Suisse AG, UBL & ABL provided $270.50mn during July-Oct FY22.
During the said period, the country received $1.041bn from bonds issuance.
During July-Oct FY22, the foreign assistance obtained by Pakistan through multilateral sources totaled $1.87bn. Amongst the multilateral development partners, International Development Association-World Bank (IDA) provided $680.36mn, followed by Asian Development Bank (ADB) with $581.01mn. While the country secured $446.31mn from Islamic Development Bank (IDB) as short-term finance during 4MFY22.
The monthly bulletin revealed that the collective disbursement from bilateral donors amounted to $120mn during July-Oct FY22 wherein Pakistan received $73.35mn from China, followed by the United States with a grant of $25.99mn, the United Kingdom with $10.01mn while Japan gave $3.70mn during the period under review.
Increased level of external inflows from multilateral and bilateral development partners is indicative of their confidence in development priorities and policies of the government including implementation of reforms in the priority areas of fiscal and debt management, energy sector, and ease of doing business.
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