Pakistan will pay only interest in both years
Shujaat Hamza
ISLAMABAD, JULY 27(DNA) — Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has confirmed that China has rolled over Pakistan’s loan for the years 2023-24 and 2024-25 amounting to Rs $2.4 billion.
In a statement on the social networking website Twitter, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that China had rolled over a debt of 2.4 billion dollars due to Pakistan. Finance Minister said that EXIM Bank of China had rolled over the loan for two years, Pakistan will pay only interest in both years.
The finance minister said that the tenure of all loan agreements had been extended from July 21, 2023 to June 30, 2025. Earlier, China had rolled over 600 million dollars of Pakistan’s loan on July 18, which was confirmed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said that China had rolled over $600 million loan due to Pakistan, resulting in further increase in Pakistan’s foreign reserves.
Addressing the launching ceremony of the Prime Minister’s Youth Sports Initiative, Shehbaz said the Exim Bank of China a day earlier rolled over $600m to Pakistan, adding that assistance from friendly countries was improving economic indicators in the country.
Last week, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had transferred an amount of $1.2 billion to the State Bank of Pakistan as a first tranche under the stand-by agreement, which was approved its executive board.
In a televised statement, Dar said the remaining $1.8 would be released after two reviews, meaning that there would be two instalments. Pakistan’s foreign reserves had jumped by $4.2 billion during the last four days, he said – in a reference to $2bn deposit made by Saudi Arabia and another $1bn received from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Noting that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif played a pivotal role in the reaching the deal with the IMF, Dar said the economic team had extended full support to him during the complicated process.
The country was gain on the move towards development, said the finance minister who stressed that everyone would have to contribute for continuing the journey.
