Pakistan obtained $5 billion less foreign assistance in first 8 months of PTI government, check out top lenders
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan provisionally received $2.941 billion foreign assistance in the first eight months (July-February) of current financial year 2018-19 against $7.608 billion during the same period of last year (2017-18), showing a reduction of about 62 percent.
The assistance received as tabulated by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) does not include the 3 billion dollars received from Saudi Arabia, 2.2 billion dollars from China and 2 billion dollars from United Arab Emirates this year with another one billion dollar pledges by UAE in the current fiscal year.
EAD data shows that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government did not borrow from foreign commercial banks in February, 2018-19. However, the country borrowed a total of $$499.44 million from foreign commercial banks during the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to $1.777 billion during the same period last year.
The PML-N government had estimated foreign assistance of $9.69 billion for 2018-19 including $394.34 million grant and $9.297 billion loans, as shown 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 commercial banks.
According to the latest figures, the country provisionally received $225.15 million including $220.51 million loans and $4.64 million grants in February.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) disbursed $19.25 million in February bringing the total disbursement to $376.11 million in the current fiscal year against the budgeted estimates of $1.38 billion for the entire year.
The country received $85.32 million from China in February, bringing the total to $1.209 billion in the current fiscal year against the budgeted estimate of $840.99 million. The amount does not include the 2.2 billion loan recently received form China.
USA disbursed $51.46 million, International Development Association (IDA) $142.83 million, IDB (S-Term) $388.82 million, UK $76.42 million, France $44.14 million, Japan $47.75 million and Germany $14.15 million in the current fiscal year so far.
The previous government had budgeted $2 billion from foreign commercial banks for 2018-19. The country received $25 million from the consortium-led by Suisse AG, UBL and ABL in December, besides $50 million received in November from the consortium.
Pakistan borrowed $159.5 million in October from Dubai Bank. According to the EAD data the loan agreement of $160 million was signed on September 26, 2018 by the PTI government of which $159.5 million has been received so far. Noor Bank disbursed $20 million in July out of the total committed amount of $130 million. The loan agreement was signed on June 21, 2018 i.e. during the caretaker government.
The Suisse AG disbursed $50 million out of its total commitment of $750 million in July. This loan agreement was signed during the PML-N government on May 9, 2018. However, no commercial loans were taken during August 2018. The country received $170 million in September from consortium-led by Suisse AG, UBL and ABL.
According to the EAD data the loan agreement of $200 million was signed on September 24, 2018 i.e. by the PTI government, but the government has crossed the figure and received $245 million so far.
