SBP to receive $300m from Chinese bank today: Ishaq Dar

Pakistan is set to receive $300 million on Friday from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC), the last of three disbursements, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed. Pakistan has already received $1 billion from the institution.

“Out of Chinese Bank’s ICBC approved facility of $1.3 billion (which was earlier repaid by Pakistan). State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would receive back third and last disbursement today in its account amounting to $300 million,” said Dar on Twiter.

This will “shore up forex reserves of Pakistan,” he added.

Of the $1.3 billion the ICBC said it would give Pakistan, the first tranche of $500mn was received on March 4 while the second disbursement, also of $500mn, was recieved two weeks later on March 18.

The latest development comes on the same day as the UAE confirming to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that it will provide support of $1 billion to Pakistan. This was also announced by Dar on Friday.

The UAE’s commitment is one of the requirements that the fund has said it needs in order to move ahead on a months-long delayed bailout package to shore up the country’s struggling economy.

Saudi Arabia last week had also told the IMF it will provide $2 billion in financing to Pakistan.

Months of political and economic turmoil, worsened by crippling floods last year and record inflation, has put Pakistan among countries facing a debt crisis.

Talks with the IMF for a delayed $1.1 billion loan tranche, part of the bailout agreed in 2019, have dragged on for weeks and foreign exchange reserves have fallen to less than four weeks of imports.

Amid all this, China has also agreed to refinance $2 billion, of which $1.7 billion has already been credited to the SBP. The neighbouring country last month also rolled over a $2 billion loan, providing relief during Pakistan’s acute balance of payments crisis.