Islamabad: Despite the IMF bailout of Pakistan, global lenders have not fully restored their confidence in Pakistan, due to which Pakistan has failed to obtain the required funding from global lenders during the first four months of the current fiscal year.
According to official data, Pakistan has been able to obtain only $2.7 billion in loans from July to October, which is less than half of the same period last year, of which $1.7 billion was provided by the IMF.
While during the same period last fiscal year, Pakistan had obtained $5.8 billion in external loans, thus Pakistan is facing a decrease of $3.2 billion (55 percent) in its borrowings in the current period.
Apart from the Asian Development Bank, other global lenders are hesitant to provide budget support, Saudi Arabia has not yet approved $1.2 billion in oil facilities, while the project is also slow.
Pakistan has planned to obtain a loan of $23 billion during the current fiscal year to meet its financial needs, which includes rolling over existing loans of $12.7 billion.
Pakistan is likely to obtain a loan of $3 billion from the UAE, a loan of $3.4 billion from China Exim Bank, and a facility of $1.2 billion from Saudi Arabia, but no progress has been made in this direction yet.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, lenders have issued loans worth $697 million between July and October, which is 16 percent of the annual estimate. The Asian Development Bank has issued $170 million, the Islamic Development Bank $150 million and the World Bank $349 million.
While a loan of $542 million has been obtained under the Naya Pakistan Certificate, Pakistan had planned to obtain $1 billion through sovereign bonds, but no progress has been made on this either. Rollover of cash deposits of $5 billion from Saudi Arabia and $4 billion from China is also part of the government’s plan, but no progress has been made on this either.
