August 31, 2021 (MLN): Pakistan has secured $1.596 billion foreign assistance during the first month of the fiscal year 2021-22 i.e., July’21 from multiple financing sources against the annual budget estimates of $14.085bn for the entire fiscal year FY22.
This foreign aid provides a wide range of support in the areas of capital formation, employment, health, education, public transport, water reservoir, and more, driving economic growth and helping to promote socio-economic and human development in Pakistan.
The Economic Affairs Division (EAD) data, released on Tuesday, shows that foreign assistance obtained by Pakistan through multilateral sources during July’21 totaled $330.31mn. Amongst the multilateral development partners, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) provided $176.19mn as short-term finance, Asian Development Bank (ADB) $31.19mn, International Development Association-World Bank (IDA) $54.74mn, IBRD $35.78mn while the country obtained $28.11mn from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) during the month of July’21.
The government also relied on foreign commercial borrowing as it was recorded at $148.26mn during July'21 while it received $1.041bn from bonds issuance. All these commercial loans were arranged for budgetary support and included an $87.26mn loan from Standard Chartered Bank London and $61mn from Ajman Bank.
Going into details made available by EAD, the collective disbursement from bilateral donors amounted to $75.85mn during July’21 wherein Pakistan received $67.41mn from China, followed by the United States with a grant of $5.72mn, Germany with $1.45mn grant while Korea gave $1.23mn.
These external inflows from multilateral and bilateral development partners are 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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