Pakistan receives $1.725bln from IFIs this week

KARACHI: Pakistan has received $1.725 billion in financial support from multilateral international financial institutions (IFIs) during the week, the central bank said on Friday.

This financing will support the government efforts to handle the impacts from the coronavirus pandemic.

"SBP has received $500 million from Asian Infrastructure investment Bank on 25th June 2020.

This brings the total amount received from multilateral institutions [World Bank and Asian Development Bank] this week around $1.725 billion," the SBP said in a tweet.

This latest disbursement has increased the country's foreign currency reserves to $18.455 billion.

The SBP's reserves have increased to $11.686 billion. Last week, the country's foreign exchange reserves had declined to $16.730 billion with those of the reserves held by the SBP stood at $9.961 billion due to debt repayments.

The current account deficit reduced 74 percent to $3.3 billion in July-May FY2020. The current account posted a surplus of $13 million in May.

Foreign direct investment has been resilient, nearly doubling to $2.4 billion so far in FY20, compared to the same period last year. The SBP, in its recent monetary policy statement, sees a stable outlook for the external sector.

“Recent data confirms the view that the current account deficit should remain bounded through the Covid-19 crisis due to lowe