Pakistan secures one-year loan rollover commitments

Friendly and brotherly countries of Pakistan have made commitments to roll over Islamabad's debt for a year. 

China, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) made the commitments at a time when the government was waiting for a new $7 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The said countries roll over the loan every year and help Pakistan to secure major external financing from the IMF programme and safe country deposits.

Pakistan has $5 billion from China, $4 billion from Saudi Arabia, and $3 billion from the UAE, and this time the country requested extending the loan until three years, a maturity period of the loan extension. 

Bloomberg quoted Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, saying, “Islamabad parliamentary committee decided in a meeting that the volume of the rollover would be same as last year.

The country has been rolling over $12 billion in bilateral loans for the past few years. 

Aurangzeb said the government expected to manage the financing gap of as much as $5 billion during the fund’s three-year programme.

However, the country and the IMF reached an agreement for the 37-month programme in July, and during this period financial assistance from the three countries would provide a path to meet the target of external financing set by the global loan lenders.