Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced on Tuesday that the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) had transferred $500 million to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
\n\u201cAIIB has transferred today, as per their board\u2019s approval, to State Bank of Pakistan\/Government of Pakistan $500 million as programme financing,\u201d the minister said on Twitter
\nEarlier this month, the finance minister had said Pakistan would receive the funds as co-financing for a development programme.
\nThe Building Resilience with Active Countercyclical Expenditures Programme is an Asian Development Bank (ADB) financing programme to counter the social fallouts of economic crisis.
\nLast month, the ADB signed an agreement with Pakistan to provide a $1.5 billion loan for budgetary support and help flood-related rehabilitation and reconstruction activities.
\nThe loan, provided under the BRACE Programme, was provided to fund the government\u2019s $2.3bn countercyclical development expenditure programme designed to cushion the impacts of external shocks, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
\nThe $1.5bn loan was aimed to provide social protection, promote food security, and support employment for people amid devastating floods and global supply chain disruptions.
\nThe State Bank later announced that it had received $1.5bn from the ADB \u201cas disbursement of policy-based loan for the government of Pakistan\u201d.
\nEarly bond repayment
\nToday\u2019s inflow from AIIB comes amid growing uncertainty about Pakistan\u2019s ability to meet external financing obligations with the country in the midst of an economic crisis and recovering from devastating floods that killed over 1,700 people.
\nPakistan\u2019s reserves with the central bank stood at $7.8bn as of November 18, barely enough to cover a month\u2019s imports.
\nBut on Friday, SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad said he expected external financing requirements would be met on time because of inflows from international lenders. He said the country will repay a $1 billion international bond on December 2, three days before its due date.
\nThe bond repayment, which matures on Dec 5, totals $1.08bn, Ahmad told a briefing, according to two analysts who were present.
\nFor this purpose, the governor said funding was lined up from multilateral and bilateral sources, one of which was the $500m from AIIB which Pakistan received today, to ensure the repayment would not affect foreign exchange reserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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