ISLAMABAD – The foreign assistance and loans under the PTI government inthe first half of Fiscal Year 2018-19 have dropped by over 60%, it has beenrevealed.
Pakistan has received $2.313 billion of its budget estimate of foreignassistance in the first half (July-December) of the current financial year2018-19 against $5.895 billion during the same period of last year(2017-18), showing a reduction of about 60 percent.
The latest data from Economic Affairs Division (EAD) shows that thePakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government borrowed $25 million fromforeign commercial banks in December, bringing the total to $499.44 millionunder this head in the current fiscal year (July-Dec) 2018-19 compared to$1.163 billion during the same period last year.
The PML-N government had estimated foreign assistance of $9.69 billion for2018-19 including $394.34 million grants and $9.297 billion in loans, asshown in the EAD data.
The country received $11.486 billion against the budgeted assistance of$8.094 billion for 2017-18 including $3.716 billion from foreign commercialbanks.
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According to the latest figures, the country provisionally received $422.68million including $402.46 million in loans and $20.22 million in grants inDecember.
The previous government had budgeted estimates of $2 billion from foreigncommercial banks for 2018-19. The country received $25 million from theconsortium-led by Suisse AG, UBL and ABL in December, besides the $50million received in November from the consortium.
