Pakistan to receive $300mn from ICBC today: Dar
- This will bring total funds received from ICBC to $1.3 billion
Pakistan is set to receive another $300 million on Friday from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC), the last of three disbursements, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed. Pakistan has already received $1 billion from the institution.
“Out of Chinese Bank’s ICBC approved facility of $1.3 billion (which was earlier repaid by Pakistan). State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would receive back third and last disbursement today in its account amounting to $300 million,” said Dar on Twiter.
This will “shore up forex reserves of Pakistan,” he added.
Of the $1.3 billion, the ICBC gave Pakistan the first tranche of $500 million on March 4 while the second disbursement, also of $500 million, was received two weeks later on March 18.
The latest development comes on the same day Dar announced that the UAE has confirmed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it will provide support of $1 billion to Pakistan.
The UAE’s commitment was one of the requirements the IMF said it needed in order to move ahead on a months-long delayed bailout package to shore up the country’s struggling economy.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia last week had also told the IMF it will provide $2 billion in financing to Pakistan, according to a finance ministry official.
Months of political and economic turmoil, worsened by crippling floods last year and record inflation, has put Pakistan among countries facing a debt crisis.
Talks with the IMF for a delayed $1.1 billion loan tranche, part of the bailout agreed in 2019, have dragged on for months and foreign exchange reserves have fallen to less than four weeks of imports.
China has rolled over $2bn loan, Dar tells Senate
China last month rolled over a $2-billion loan, providing relief during Pakistan’s acute balance of payments crisis.
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