Pakistan locks $3.4 billion in budgetary support from Asian Development Bank

ISLAMABAD: The prime minister’s adviser on finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said on Saturday the Asian Development Bank would provide $3.4 billion in budgetary support to help stabilize Pakistan’s slowing economy.
Pakistan unveiled a tax-heavy budget with a total outlay of Rs8.2 trillion last Tuesday, weeks after it reached a staff level agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a $6 billion bailout deal.
In a series of tweets, Shaikh said he had met ADB director general Werner Liepach on Saturday and finalized the budgetary support deal.
“$2.2 billion will be released this fiscal year, starting in the first quarter of FY 2019-20. This will help the reserve position and the external account,” the de facto finance minister said. “This support is in addition to the project portfolio with an estimated disbursement of upto $1 billion in FY 2019-20.”
The IMF deal signed last month, which still needs approval by the IMF board in Washington, would be the 13th such bailout since the late 1980s.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government came to power last year determined to avoid another bailout and initially sought billions of dollars in funding from friendly countries including China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
But with inflation at a five-year high, the rupee losing a third of its value over the past year, and foreign exchange reserves barely enough to cover two months of exports, it was forced to turn to the IMF.