Pakistan receives $500 million from Beijing-based AIIB

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has received $500 million from Beijing-headquartered Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), as part of efforts to shore up the country’s reserves.

This brings the total amount received from multilateral institutions this week to around $1,725 million. The Finance Ministry had announced confirmed receiving the amount from the international financial institution stating the government is “very grateful to its development partners for this critically needed support in such unprecedentedly difficult and uncertain time.”

According to the central bank, the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at US$16.73 billion as of June 19. The data is released after a week backlog and is likely to surge after the recent receipts.

Earlier this week, Pakistan has received $1 billion in fresh loans from two international financial institutions for overcoming the shortfall in budgeted expenditures and fight the coronavirus pandemic.

SBP received $1 billion which included $500 million each from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank. The agreements were signed earlier this month in the presence of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

READ MORE: Pakistan receives $500 million each from World Bank, ADB

In April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided an emergency loan of $1.4 billion to fight the coronavirus pandemic, improve international payment capability and finance the budgeted expenditures.

The central bank also said the current account posted a surplus of $13 million in May against a deficit of $350 million in April. The current account deficit narrowed to $3.28 billion in the first eleven months of current fiscal year and declined sharply in May.

During July-May, the deficit fell by 73.6 percent compared to $12.453 billion in the same period last fiscal year due to a sharp reduction in import bill as exports showed lackluster growth.

According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the export of goods fell to $20.9 billion, down from $22.5 billion in the last fiscal year, while imports fell to $38.9 billion from $47.8 billion last year.