Amid external account challenges, Pakistan borrowed about $5.115 billion in foreign loans in the first five months (July-November) of the current fiscal year, almost 14 per cent higher than the foreign loans it received in the comparable period last year. In its monthly report on Foreign Economic Assistance (FEA), the Ministry of Economic Affairs said it received about $5.115 billion foreign assistance compared to $4.499 billion in the same period last year. In November alone, Pakistan received $842 million from foreign inflows, a rise of 6 per cent in the same month last year. Unlike previous years, there were only three major sources of foreign inflows this year: $4.172 billion from multilateral lenders followed by $602 million from bilateral lenders and about $200mn from commercial banks. The fourth usual source—international bonds—had dried up because of poor credit rating amid external account challenges and resultantly historically low foreign exchange reserves. Of the multilaterals, the Asian Development Bank turned out to be the biggest lender with $1.677 billion loan disbursements followed by $1.166 billion from the International Monetary Fund, reports Dawn.
