ISLAMABAD (Eshfak Mughal): The Care Taker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar led Federal Government is struggling to get external financings even after securing loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The former Prime Minister Shehbaz Govt had estimated the country will arrange $17.62 billion external financing to fulfill the financing needs during the current fiscal year.
According to the Economic Affair Division, the government has secured $3.2 billion including $2.0 billion safe deposit of Saudi Arabia. The brother Islamic Country had rolled over the Safe Deposit amount in July 2023 to help out the country to secure IMF deal and build forex reserves.
The country could not materialize the estimated financing from commercial banks due to risk of default during the first two months of the current fiscal year. The government had budgeted estimates of $4.5 billion from the foreign commercial banks for the current fiscal year 2023-24, however, no money was received under this head in July and August.
The country received $140.82 million under the head of “Naya Pakistan Certificate” during the first two months of the current fiscal year 2023-24.
The country received $335.87 million from multilateral and $221.36 million from bilateral during July-August FY24. The non-project aid was $2.446 billion including $2.149 billion for budgetary support and project aid was $759.95 million. The country received $508.34 million under the head of guaranteed CATIC (PAF).
Asian Development Bank (ADB) disbursed $38.78 million during the period under review compared to the budgeted $2.086 billion for the fiscal year 2023-24.
China disbursed no money in July-August, however, the government has budgeted $18.54 million for the current fiscal year.
Saudi Arabia disbursed $200 million against the budgeted $600 million under the head of oil facility during July-August 2023-24. The US disbursed $11.64 million in the first two months against the budgeted $21.60 million for the fiscal year. Korea disbursed $4.85 million and France $1.28 million during the current fiscal year.
The IDA disbursed $161.07 million in July-August against the budgeted $1.489 billion for the current fiscal year and IBRD $16.47 million against the budgeted $840.36 million. IsDB (Short-term) disbursed $97.10 million in July-August against the budgeted $500 million for the current fiscal year and AIIB disbursed $16.07 million, while IFAD disbursed $6.38 million against the budgeted $42.68 million for the current fiscal year.