New York: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called Pakistan’s borrowing from a private bank at a huge interest rate of 11 percent as unnecessary, saying that the IMF does not allow Pakistan to take such commercial loans. had said
The Pakistani government had sought a loan from Standard Chartered Bank to fill the external financing gap, saying that the loan was necessary for approval of the IMF program.
The government has agreed to borrow $600 million from London’s Standard Chartered Bank at an interest rate of 11 percent, the highest interest rate ever.
The finance ministry claimed that it was initially reluctant to get the loan, but had to swallow after failing to secure the loan from other sources.
According to a senior government official, no bank is willing to provide loans at low interest rates, so the loan has to be taken at high interest rates.
However, yesterday the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a 7 billion dollar loan program for Pakistan and today the spokesman of the IMF has said in his statement that Pakistan will pay an interest rate of 11%. Commercial financing is not available to our knowledge.
IMF Spokesman said that IMF has not asked Pakistan to take this type of commercial loan, no such financing is necessary for IMF program assurances.
