Foreign Loans Decline by 51% in November 2023

Pakistan borrowed $4.285 billion from multiple financing sources during the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, a big decrease of 16 percent from $5.114 billion borrowed during the same period of 2022-23, revealed the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) data. Data further shows that the country received $415.99 million in November 2023, a 51 percent decrease compared to $846.76 million in November 2022. The government has budgeted $2.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the current fiscal year 2023-24 and received $1.2 billion as the first tranche of the $3 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) in July 2023, however, the EAD data does not reflect it. Further, there is no mention of the $1 billion disbursed by the UAE. If the IMF and UAE inflows are added, the total inflows would reach $6.485 billion during the first five months of the current fiscal year. The $4.285 billion included $2 billion received from Saudi Arabia under the head of time deposit during July 2023. The data further shows that the government had budgeted estimates of $4.5 billion from the foreign commercial banks for the current fiscal year 2023-24, however, no money was received under this head during the first five months of the current fiscal year. The government had budgeted $1.5 billion for the issuance of bonds, however, the country has yet to issue the bonds, hence no amount has been received so far. The government had budgeted $17.619 billion from multiple financing sources for the current fiscal year including $17.384 billion in loans and $234.60 million in grants. The country borrowed $10.844 billion from multiple financing sources including $2.206 billion from foreign commercial banks during the fiscal year 2022-23 against the budgeted foreign assistance of $22.817 billion. However, the $10.844 billion did not include the rollover of friendly countries’ deposits amounting to $6 billion (i.e. $3 billion each from China and Saudi Arabia) and the re-financing of a Chinese loan of $1.3 billion. The country received $407.49 million under the head of “Naya Pakistan Certificate” during the first five months of the current fiscal year 2023-24. The country received $786.64 million from multilateral and $583 million from bilateral during July-November 2023-24. The non-project aid was $3.064 billion including $2.464 billion for budgetary support and project aid was $1.221 billion. China disbursed $508.34 million under the head guarantee for the JF-17 B project funded by China National Aero-technology Import and Export Corporation (CATIC). China further disbursed 8.26 million in July-November against the government budget of $18.54 million for the current fiscal year. Asian Development Bank (ADB) disbursed $120.47 million during the period under review compared to the budgeted $2.086 billion for the fiscal year 2023-24. Saudi Arabia disbursed $500 million against the budgeted $600 million under the head of oil facility during July-November 2023-24. The USA disbursed $23.35 million in the first five months against the budgeted $21.60 million for the fiscal year. Korea disbursed $10.98 million and France $20.15 million during the current fiscal year. The IDA disbursed $402.45 million in July-November against the budgeted $1.489 billion for the current fiscal year and IBRD $88.19 million against the budgeted $840.36 million. IsDB (Short-term) disbursed $100 million in July-November against the budgeted $500 million for the current fiscal year and AIIB disbursed $32.44 million, while IFAD disbursed $15.29 million against the budgeted $42.68 million for the current fiscal year.