Pakistan’s foreign loans during 1Q ’17 reach $1.5 billion against full year target of $8 billion

Pakistan has borrowed fresh foreign loans of $1.5 billion during the first quarter against the full financial year target of nearly $8.094 billion, according to an official of the Ministry of Finance.

The government due to the ever increasing Current Account deficit has been forced to bow down for fresh loans in the first quarter of new fiscal year, out of 1.5 billion dollars loan about 458 million dollars has been from commercial banks.

Commercial loans acquired from Citibank and Credit Suisse consortium would be relatively expensive.

Of the full year target of 1 billion set for borrowing from commercial banks, nearly 46 percent has already been borrowed from banks to support Foreign Exchange reserves.

The government during the current financial year set a target to acquire $2 billion external loans. Immense pressure on Foreign Exchange reserves owing to rising Current Account (12 billion dollars) deficit which has reached to its second highest levels in country’s history. These desperate times have forced the government to borrow 4.367 billion from commercial banks.