Daily Times

Pakistan will ask international lenders for billions of dollars in loans after devastating floods exacerbated the country’s economic crisis, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

“We are not asking for any kind of measure [such as] a rescheduling or a moratorium,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the Financial Times. “We are asking for additional funds.”

The country needs “huge sums of money” for “mega undertakings” such as rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure damaged or washed away, the FT quoted Shehbaz as saying.

The prime minister did not specify the amount Pakistan is seeking, but repeated an estimate of $30 billion of flood losses, the report said.

Earlier this month, the United Nations raised its humanitarian aid appeal for Pakistan five-fold to $816 million from $160m, as a surge in water-borne diseases and fear of growing hunger pose new dangers after the unprecedented floods.

The European Union also scaled up its flood assistance to 30m euros.

A decline in the Pakistani rupee is also pushing up the cost of imports, borrowing and debt servicing, and will further exacerbate inflation already running at multi-decade highs.

The estimated $30bn in damage to the economy from the floods along with rising concerns about Islamabad’s ability to raise money to meet external financing requirements has worsened the situation.

Earlier, the United Nations warned the humanitarian situation in flood-ravaged Pakistan was expected to get worse, a day after establishing an air bridge to deliver aid to victims. More than 33 million people in Pakistan have been affected by the flooding, brought on by record monsoon rains amplified by climate change. The floods have caused at least 1,300 deaths and washed away homes, businesses, roads and bridges.

The UN’s World Health Organisation said more than 1,460 health centres had been damaged, of which 432 were fully wrecked, the majority of them in the southeastern province of Sindh.