Pakistan obtains $1 bn guaranteed loan from bilateral partner in May

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has obtained a $1 billion guaranteed loan from a bilateral partner in May 2021 probably from China that helped shore up external inflows up to $12.134 billion in the first 11 months (July-May) period of the current fiscal year 2020-21.

The government had envisaged to fetch total foreign inflows to the tune of $12.233 billion mainly in the shape of loans during the whole fiscal year and it seemed that Islamabad might surpass its envisaged target to get increased foreign funding than it had budgeted on the eve of the last budget.

Top official sources of the PTI-led government confirmed to The News in background exclusive discussions on Thursday that the total provisional disbursements of external loans went up to $12.13 billion during July-May period of the current fiscal year against $10.6 billion obtained in the whole last fiscal year 2019-20.

The total external inflows in the shape of multilateral loans, bilateral loans and issuance of international bonds had fetched $10.195 billion in the first 10 months (July-April) period of the current fiscal year.

However, the external inflows jumped up by around $2 billion in May 2021 out of which around $1 billion was obtained in the shape of a guaranteed loan from the bilateral partner. This bilateral partner is probably China as it provided a guaranteed loan to help Islamabad to construct its much-desired infrastructure.