ADB signs $200mn loan for budgetary support in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed two loans totaling $1.3 billion for budgetary support in Pakistan.

The ADB approved $1 billion in immediate budgetary support to Pakistan to shore up the country’s public finances and help strengthen a slowing economy.

The quick separating Special Policy-Based Loan is part of a comprehensive multi-donor economic reform programme led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stabilise Pakistan’s economy after a major deterioration in its fiscal and financial position.

Read more: ADB approves $75m loan for education project in Sindh

According to the ADB bank, it approved the financing after the government completed a series of IMF-supported reforms and actions to improve its current account deficit.

Earlier, the ADB approved a $300 million policy-based loan that would help the government to address financial sustainability.

Also read: ADB approves $200 million loan to Pakistan

The bank said that the energy reform programme aimed to address the underlying causes of circular debt with a focus on improving inadequate tariff and subsidy systems.

Earlier in October, the ADB approved a $75 million loan for a project that would help improve the quality, accessibility, and gender responsiveness of the secondary education system and infrastructure in the province of Sindh.

Also read: Pakistan in top 5 remittance recipients in the region: ADB

Pakistan has 22.8 million out-of-school children, 28 percent of whom are in Sindh. The province also has the second-lowest gross enrollment ratios and net enrollment rates at all education levels in the country.