ISLAMABAD: The federal government took $956 million loans from the foreign commercial banks from July 2015 to January 2016.
The government took loans from commercial banks, which it had budgeted to receive in the entire fiscal year (July 2015 to June 2016), at higher interest rate.
Interestingly, Australia, EU, Italy, Norway, UNDP, Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and Turkish Exim Bank did not release a single penny for Pakistan during the period under review. Meanwhile, other multilateral and bilateral donors had not released even 50 percent of the committed amount despite passing of seven months of the year 2015-2016.
According to the latest data of Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Pakistan had received $4.28 billion, which is 46 percent of budget estimates of foreign assistance, from multilateral and bilateral donors from July to January 2016.
The government had projected to receive $9.18 billion loans to be received from multilateral and bilateral donors excluding IMF’s tranches during ongoing financial year.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) disbursed $662.78 million to Pakistan during July to January 2016, which is 65 percent of the budgeted estimates of $1020.4 million.
However, China released $561.4 million, 18 percent of the budgeted inflow of $3.05 billion. International Development Association (IDA) released $612.95 million in July-January period, which is only 35 of the budget estimates of $1729.2 million.
