China rolls over $2bn loan to Pakistan: Dar

Author: Agencies

Finance minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday that China had rolled over a $2 billion loan that matured last week, providing relief during the nation’s acute balance of payment crisis.

Locking in a rollover had been critical for Pakistan, where reserves have dipped to just four weeks’ worth of imports and talks over an IMF bailout tranche of $1.1 billion have hit a stalemate.

“I am happy to confirm that this had been rolled over on March 23,” Dar told the Senate, referring to the maturity date. He said all concerned documentation had been completed.

Dar’s comments were the first official announcement of the rollover after the loan matured. Dar did not give the new maturity date or other terms of the arrangement.

A top finance ministry official told Reuters on Wednesday that a formal confirmation of the refinancing would be made after the process was completed.

Islamabad has been negotiating with the IMF since early February for the release of $1.1 billion from a $6.5 billion bailout package agreed in 2019. One of the IMF’s conditions for the release of the tranche is assurance of external financing to fund Pakistan’s balance of payments. Longtime ally Beijing is the only help Islamabad has got so far, with refinancing of $1.8 billion credited last month to Pakistan’s central bank.

In its monthly Economic Update and Outlook, the Finance Division of the government noted that Pakistan was currently confronted with shortage in external liquidity.

Islamabad has been negotiating with the IMF since early February for the release of $1.1 billion from a $6.5 billion bailout package agreed in 2019. To unlock the funding, the government has cut back on subsidies, removed an artificial cap on the exchange rate, added taxes and raised fuel prices. “Through demand management policies, the government is trying to limit the current account deficit, which will not transfer further pressure on dwindling reserves,” read the report. It added that inflation, which is already running above 30%, a near 50-year high, is expected to stay elevated.

The report cited market frictions caused by relative demand and supply gaps of essential items, exchange rate depreciation, and the recent upward adjustment in prices of prices of fuel as reasons behind higher inflation expectations.