ADB approves $1.3 billion budgetary support

Asian Development Bank has approved $1.3 billion budgetary support loan for Pakistan, including $1 billion in crisis response facility.

It is the first time in Pakistan’s history that any govt availed crisis response facility to repay its foreign debt n build Forex reserves.

Commenting on the loan, ADB Director General for Central and West Asia Werner Liepach maintained that the bank is committed to providing Pakistan support so that it may strengthen its economy.

“These funds will meet the government’s emergency financing needs to prevent significant adverse social and economic impacts and lay the foundations for a return to balanced growth,” he said.

Let it be known that Pakistan is facing significant economic challenges on the back of a large balance of payments gap and critically low foreign exchange reserves together with weak and unbalanced growth.

In July, the IMF approved a three-year $6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to finance the government’s economic reform program that aims to put Pakistan’s economy on the path of sustainable and inclusive growth.