Islamabad: The World Bank has agreed to increase its social-sector financing limit for Pakistan by up to USD 250 million; effectively doubling its financing to the country in view of the shaky economic situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a news source reported.
The loan facility will be provided under the Securing Human Investments to Foster Transformation (SHIFT) programme.
More specifically, the loan is expected to help improve the quality of documentation and statistics relating to birth and death. The loan will also help Pakistan implement its plans for providing universal health coverage.
This, coupled with USD 1.4 billion in emergency loan from International Monetary Fund (IMF), is expected to help Pakistan overcome the economic crunch caused in the wake of the countrywide lockdown imposed to contain the virus spread. Although the State Bank had announced that Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are good for the current fiscal year, the reserves had declined below USD 7 billion recently.
