China bank has okayed $700m for Pakistan: Dar

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar on Wednesday announced that China Development Bank (CDB) approved the facility of $700 million for Pakistan and the amount would help shore up foreign exchange reserves.

“Formalities completed and the Board of China Development Bank has approved the facility of $700 million for Pakistan. This amount is expected to be received this week by State Bank of Pakistan which will shore up its forex reserves,” Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar stated in his tweet on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves stood at $3.1 billion and IMF is seeking confirmation for external financing for moving towards the revival of the Fund’s stalled programme. Pakistan is making requests to the IMF staff for signing the Staff Level Agreement (SLA) and then sought confirmation from the multilateral and bilateral creditors till the IMF’s Executive Board meeting. If the SLA is signed then it will take a few weeks to lay the SLA before the IMF’s Board for considering approval for completion of 9th review and release of $1 billion tranche under $6.5 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

Meanwhile, Donald Blome, Ambassador of the United States of America to Pakistan called on Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Senator welcomed Donald Blome and shared deep rooted historic and durable bilateral relations with the United States on economic and trade fronts. The finance minister shared economic policies and priorities of the government to address the challenging economic environment and set the economy on the trajectory path. It was also shared that the present government is highly concerned about the well-being of the masses, therefore, a number of measures are being undertaken in this regard.

The two sides exchanged views on matters of common interest and enhancing the existing bilateral relations between both the countries. The finance minister informed the US ambassador about the government’s pragmatic plans related to revenues and expenditure for meeting its national as well as international financial obligations.