Pakistan signed up for over $10.4bn in foreign loans during pandemic year

In this file photo, pedestrians walk past a logo of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) displayed outside its headquarters in Manila on Sept. 2, 2010. (AFP)
In this file photo, pedestrians walk past a logo of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) displayed outside its headquarters in Manila on Sept. 2, 2010. (AFP)
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Updated 12 December 2020
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Pakistan signed up for over $10.4bn in foreign loans during pandemic year

Pakistan signed up for over $10.4bn in foreign loans during pandemic year
  • Largest multilateral lenders emerged as Asian Development Bank, World Bank and Islamic Development Bank
  • A whopping $3.4 billion-- 33 percent of total commitments-- were loans signed with foreign commercial banks

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan signed financing agreements worth $10.447 billion with various development partners and foreign commercial banks during FY2020 with a focus on budgetary support to offset the pandemic’s fallout, the government’s annual report on foreign economic assistance released on Friday revealed.
Last year, foreign loans at the end of the year amounted to $8.4 billion.
More than $6.79 billion in financing agreements were signed with multilateral agencies, with Asian Development Bank emerging as the largest lender or ‘development partner' followed by the World Bank and Islamic Development Bank.
The report, released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said 69 percent of the new commitments during FY2019-20 fell under ‘budgetary support.’
“This high level of budgetary support was secured mainly to offset socio-economic impact of Covid-19 pandemic and to meet the higher external financing requirements for external debt retirements,” the report said.
It also stated that 99 percent of the agreements Pakistan signed in FY20 were for loans, and the remaining 1 percent were grant commitments.
A whopping $3.463 billion-- amounting to 33 percent of total commitments-- were loans signed with foreign commercial banks, the government report stated, “in order to refinance maturing commercial debt during the year.”
Pakistan’s total external public debt amounted to $77.9 billion on June 30, 2020, compared to $73.4 billion during the same period last year.