AIIB okays $500m for post-flood rebuilding.

ISLAMABAD -- Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday said the board of directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) had approved a $500 million loan that would stand transferred to Pakistan this month to help mitigate damages caused by devastating floods.

The 'Board of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has today approved $500 million as co-financing of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded BRACE programme for Pakistan. These funds will be received by SBP within November 2022', he announced through his Twitter account.

There was no official announcement so far from the Beijing-based multilateral lending agency.

The ADB had late last month transferred a $1.5bn loan under Building Resilience with Active Countercyclical Expenditure (BRACE) programme for budgetary support and to help flood-related rehabilitation and reconstruction activities. The BRACE programme loan is aimed to provide social protection, promote food security, and support employment for people amid devastating floods and global supply chain disruptions.

The ADB's $1.5bn BRACE support to Pakistan under countercyclical programmes was earlier planned for post-Covid recovery. The Planning Commission (PC) had expressed reservations over the interest rate but later gave in owing to challenging foreign exchange conditions.

The PC wanted this to be soft financing at around 2pc interest instead of ordinary...