Govt borrows $514.55m from foreign commercial banks.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan had borrowed $514.55 million from foreign commercial banks in first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal year 2019-20.

The federal government had budgeted to borrow $2 billion foreign commercial loans during ongoing financial year. The government had borrowed more than 25 percent ($514.44 million) in the first quarter. Borrowing $514.55 million is part of the government's overall borrowing from multilateral and bilateral creditors and commercial banks in July-September period that stood at $2.08 billion.

The government of Pakistan had projected to borrow $12.957 billion from multilateral and bilateral creditors and commercial banks in the year 2019-20. However, borrowing from International Monetary Fund (IMF) is not part of the $12.957 billion. According to the data of Economic Affairs Division, the country borrowed $1.017 billion from multilateral, $1.418 billion from bilateral and $514.55 million from commercial banks during first quarter of the current fiscal year, making the total borrowing at $2.08 billion. The amount had not included $991 million, which the government had received from the IMF on completion of all prior actions committed by Pakistan before signing the fund programme.

The data showed that government borrowed $514.55 million from foreign commercial banks compared to $70 million during the same period of last year. China disbursed $261.75 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2019-20. The Islamic Development Bank disbursed $303.68 million in July to September out of the total of $1.1 billion budgeted...