Karachi: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday (October 26) released USD 1.5 billion to Pakistan to stabilise the national economy, news sources reported.
The funds were released under the BRACE (Building Resilience Under Active Countercyclical Expenditures) program, which aims to support the government’s efforts to deal with the adverse impacts of devastating floods, supply chain disruptions, rising energy prices, and inflation on the poor and vulnerable.
Through its official Twitter handle, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced that it had received USD 1.5 billion from the ADB ‘as disbursement of policy-based loan for the government of Pakistan’. These proceeds have increased the foreign exchange reserves of SBP and will be reflected in the reserves for the week ending Oct 28.
#SBP has received US Dollar 1.5 billion from ADB in value 26Oct22 as disbursement of policy based loan for the Government of Pakistan. These proceeds have increased the FX reserves of SBP and will be reflected in the reserves for the week ending 28Oct22.
It is vital to highlight that Pakistan must service USD 32 billion in debt commitments in the current fiscal year (2023), which requires foreign finance. Furthermore, to compensate for the gap, the government has set the largest tax collection target of more than PKR 7 trillion under the IMF-approved plan. The IMF previously disbursed the government USD 1.1 billion to help stabilise its FOREX reserves, which have plummeted to USD 7.8 billion in recent months.
Nauman Ahmad is an imaginative Pisces whose love for literature and nature is unparalleled. When he's not reading or hiking, he's sleeping and eating, which gives him plenty of energy for his next adventure.
