Govt borrowed $5.84b from external sources in nine months.

Byline: Imran Ali Kundi

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan borrowed $5.84 billion from external sources during nine months to boost its foreign exchange reserves, which are depleting rapidly.

Pakistan has obtained foreign loans worth of $1.15 billion from multilateral sources, $1.54 billion from bilateral and $3.15 billion from banking sources during nine months (July to March) of the current fiscal year. Total loan taken in nine months stood at $5.84 billion, according to the official data of Economic Affairs Division (EAD).

The loan disbursements from July to March are equal to 60.2 percent of the original annual estimates. Pakistan had estimated to receive $9.69 billion as foreign assistance from bilateral, multilateral and banking sources during current financial year (FY2019). In March alone, the country had borrowed only $2.9 billion from aforesaid sources. The previous government had budgeted estimates of $2 billion from foreign commercial banks for 2018-19. However, the incumbent government had surpassed the level in nine months period. The major chunk from these loans was $2.2 billion commercial loan from China. The $3 billion loan that Pakistan received from Saudi Arabia, $2 billion from United Arab Emirates (UAE) are not part of the aforesaid loan. The Saudi Arabian and UAE's assistance has been shown on books of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves had increased to $17.7 billion after receiving $2.2 billion from China. However, the reserves had started declining due to massive repayment against previous loans. Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves have declined by $1.0325 billion to $15.99 billion during previous two weeks. The reserves would remain under pressure in next few months due to massive repayment against previous loans.

Pakistan and International Monetary Fund...