China bails out Pakistan with $ 1.2 billion loans: Financial Times
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ISLAMABAD: China helped Pakistan stave off a currency crisis by providing over $1.2 billion in loans during the past one year, the Financial Times claimed in a report on Tuesday.
According to the publication’s sources, state-backed Chinese banks have twice come to Pakistan’s rescue of Pakistan with $900m in 2016 and $300m in 2017’s first quarter.
Pakistan’s stocks of foreign currency remained saw volatile activity due to rising imports and a parallel fall in exports and remittances in the recent months.
The financial help extended from Pakistan’s close neighbour is indicative of increasingly close ties between the two countries at a time when the relationship between Pakistan and the US remains strained.
“Beijing is preparing to invest at least $52bn in Pakistan to build a highway, energy pipelines, power generation facilities and industrial parks from the western port of Gwadar on the Gulf to the Chinese border to the north,” the Financial Times reported.
However, despite its expected advantages to Pakistan, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project is set to further deplete the foreign currency stocks that are required to pay contractors and suppliers.