ISLAMABAD – After receiving massive much needed $4.2 billion fromInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates(UAE) in last week, Pakistan is expecting to receive more $4 billion fromother sources in next few weeks.
In the last week, the IMF Executive Board has approved a 9-month Stand-ByArrangement (SBA) for Pakistan for an amount of SDR2,250 million (about $3billion, or 111 percent of quota) to support the authorities’ economicstabilization program. The Executive Board’s approval allowed for animmediate disbursement of SDR894 million (or about US$1.2 billion).Earlier, Saudi Arabia has released $2 billion and UAE deposited one billiondollars in State Bank of Pakistan account. Overall, the country hadreceived $4.2 billion in last one week. The inflows would increase thecountry’s foreign exchange reserves in the range of $13 billion to $14billion.
According to the official, the government is now expecting to receive morethan four billion dollars in next few weeks from the different sources. Thegovernment is $1 billion from Islamic Development Bank, $450 million fromthe World Bank and $250 million from Asian Infrastructure Investmentwithin the ongoing month.
The country might receive $300 million to $500 million of Geneva pledgesfor flood affected areas and $1 billion to $2 billion minimum from UAEcommercial banks, which will not rolled over during the last few months.
In the current month, the reserves might increase to $16 billion.
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It is worth mentioning here that in the absence of the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) programme, Pakistan has received only $8.6 billionborrowing from international lenders in eleven months, which was notsufficient to build the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
The government had struggled to revive the Extended Fund Facility of theIMF in the last several months, which resulted in lower inflows from theinternational lenders in the eleven months (July-May) of the currentfiscal year. The country has received only $8.6 billion borrowing from thevarious financing sources in July-May period of the year 2022-23 ascompared to $13.54 billion in the corresponding period of the previousyear, showing a decline of around 36 percent.