January 26, 2022 (MLN): Pakistan obtained fresh external loans of $9.43 billion in the first half of the ongoing fiscal year i.e., July- Dec FY22 from multiple financing sources including $3bn time deposits from Saudi Arabia 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.
In the month of December alone, the country incurred a foreign loan of $4.56bn from multiple sources.
Out of $9.43bn, the government obtained $6.8bn in the form of program/budgetary support assistance to restructure Pakistan’s economy, $800mn for short-term credit, and $24.4mn for TDPs while $1.5bn 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 $3.057bn of foreign economic assistance during 1HFY22. These healthy inflows also helped to improve foreign exchange reserves.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs noted the country relied on foreign commercial borrowing as it was recorded at $2.03bn that included a $1.14bn from Dubai Bank, $61mn from Ajman Bank, $487.26mn loan from Standard Chartered Bank London while Suisse AG, UBL & ABL provided $343mn during July-Dec FY22.
Similarly, the country received $1.04bn from bonds issuance during the said period.
During July-Dec FY22, the foreign loans and grants borrowed by Pakistan through multilateral sources totaled $2.91bn. Amongst the multilateral development partners, Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided $1.06bn, followed by International Development Association-World Bank (IDA) with $809.5mn. While the country secured $800.7mn from Islamic Development Bank (IDB) as short-term finance during 1HFY22.
Meanwhile, the collective disbursement from bilateral donors amounted to $150.2mn during July-Dec FY22 wherein Pakistan received $74.5mn from China, followed by the United States with a grant of $32.6mn, the United Kingdom with $14.54mn while Germany gave $12.07mn during the period under review, the bulletin revealed.
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