Dollar inflows drop by 85pc in July

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has secured dollar inflows in the shape of foreign loans to the tune of $436.4 million during July 2024 compared to $2.89 billion in the same month of the last Financial Year 2023-24.

There was a major difference on account of two heads, as in July 2023, Pakistan received $2 billion in the shape of Time Deposits from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the country secured $508 million for CATIC (PAF) aircraft.

Now, Pakistan has made a formal request to KSA for provision of additional loan of over $1 billion to bridge the financing gap that had proved as a major stumbling block in getting approval of $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) from the IMF.

Economic Affairs Division (EAD) has not projected any amount under the head of Saudi Oil Facility (SOF) from KSA.

Pakistan had secured $600 million in the shape of SOF in the last fiscal year till December 2023 after which the SOF got expired. Pakistan had made a request to extend it for another 12 months but got no response from the Saudi side.

Pakistan and the IMF had struck a Staff Level Agreement on July 12, 2024, but Islamabad is still struggling to manage external financing gap ranging from $2-$3 billion during the current fiscal year.

According to the data of Economic Affairs Division released on Tuesday, Pakistan received $201 million from multilateral creditors during the first month of the current fiscal year. The bilateral creditors provided loans of $107 million. Pakistan has received $127.7 million in the shape of Naya Pakistan Certificates (NPC) during July 2024 against $74.7 million in the same month of the last fiscal year. Pakistan was eyeing to fetch $19.393 billion in the shape of foreign loans out of which deposits from KSA and China stood at $9 billion, and it was expected it would be rolled over for another fiscal year.