Islamabad: The World Bank (WB) has decided to resume its budget aid programme for Pakistan after a gap of four years – a news source reported. As per officials, the international agency is expected to provide PKR 500 million to facilitate improvement in the country’s financial administration framework as well as recovery of sales tax.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank had stopped providing budget aid to Pakistan in 2017 after the economic conditions had deteriorated in the country.
The WB had expressed reservations regarding exchange rate fluctuations since the bank had made the aid dependent on lowering rupee to the market value. The bank also requires a country to have foreign exchange reserves for two and a half months of import bill.
ADB had resumed its aid about two months ago, while World Bank is also planning to resume now since Pakistan has adjusted the value of rupee according to the market situation. Pakistan still does not meet the second requirement, however, the World Bank will still allow the aid because Pakistan has signed the IMF agreement.
On November 15, the State Bank of Pakistan had stated the country’s foreign exchange reserves had reached USD 8.44 billion.
