Pakistan secures loans of $1.7 billion in FY25's first four months

Pakistan has secured $1.72 billion in foreign loans and grants during the first four months of fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25), according to official data released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EAD) on Tuesday.

The government had estimated about $19.3 billion in foreign assistance in the budget for FY25, including $19.2 billion in loans and the remaining $176.2 million in grants.

The total amount of $1.72 billion constitutes $720 million from multilateral sources, $259.89 million from bilateral sources, $542.15 million from Naya Pakistan Certificates, and $200 million foreign commercial loans.

According to EAD, Pakistan has borrowed $266 million from International Development Association (IDA), $173.05 million from the Asian Development Bank, $97.19 million from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, $17.41 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, $15 million from the International Fund for Agricultural Development, $0.75 million from the OPEC Fund, and $154 million from the Islamic Development Bank to Pakistan from July to October.

On the other hand, China remained the biggest lender as Beijing gave $97.58 million, followed by France $89.64 million, while USA, Germany, Japan and Korea gave $37.72 million, $11.29 million, $9.71 million, and $7.59 million respectively.

According to EAD, Pakistan secured $826.07 million under project aid and $896.96 million under non-project aid.

The EAD document states that the government in Budget 2024-25 estimated that it would secure $1 billion loan from raising bonds, $3.7 billion from foreign commercial loans, $100 million from ECO trade bank, $5 billion from Saudi Arabia's deposit and $4 billion from SAFE China deposit. However, Islamabad has been unable to secure any of these loans so far.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan had reached a staff-level agreement on a 37-month Extended Fund Facility Arrangement (EFF) of $7 billion in July.

Besides this, friendly countries also rolled over $12 billion loan for another one year.