ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is expecting to receive $1 billion from the World Bank in the next few weeks, which would help in building the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
An official of the Ministry of Economic Affairs told The Nation that Pakistan is likely to receive $1 billion from the World Bank within the current month. He said that the government is implementing the prior actions for the loan. The amount would help in building the country’s foreign exchange reserves, which had already touched the historic high level after receiving $2.8 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the last week of August.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves had recently reached an all-time high of $20.15 billion. The country’s overall foreign exchange reserves, including those held by banks recorded at $27.227 billion. Net reserves held by banks stood at $7,082 billion. The historic development comes after SBP, on August 23, received $2.78 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as part of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation.
According to the data of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Pakistan had taken a foreign loan of $1.596 billion from multiple financing sources in the first month (July) of 2021-22 apart from the loan of IMF.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have recently reached an all-time high of $20.15b. The country’s overall foreign exchange reserves, including those held by banks recorded at $27.227b. Net reserves held by banks stand at $7,082b
The government had budgeted estimates of $14.085 billion for the current financial year including $13.871 billion loans and $214 million loans from multilateral and bilateral sources.
The breakup of $1.6 billion showed that Pakistan has received $330.33 million from multilateral, $75.85 million from bilateral, $148.26 million from foreign commercial banks, and $1.041 billion from issuance of bonds. Among the multilateral development partners, mainly the Asian Development Bank provided $31.19 million, the World Bank disbursed $90.54 million, the AIIB $28.11 million, and IDB (S-Term) $176.19 million. Meanwhile, from bilateral sources, China disbursed $67.41 million, the USA $5.72 million, Korea $1.23 million, and Germany $1.45 million.
Continuous borrowing has increased the country’s overall debt. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the public debt increased to Rs39.9 trillion by June this year, an addition of Rs14.9 trillion within three years.
