Pakistan, facing economic crisis, has requested its all-time ally China to provide $ 1.3 billion commercial loan as soon as possible and also informed it about the dwindling possibilities of the installment under the IMF loan program.
According to the report of Pakistan’s Express Tribune newspaper, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar made a loan request on Monday, June 12, during a meeting with Pang Chunxue, in charge of China’s Diplomatic Affairs. Quoting sources in the report, it has been said that the Chinese officials have already assured Pakistan that they will definitely get the loan, but Pakistan should repay the earlier loan. Here, Pakistan wants the money to be given as soon as possible. Dar urged the Chinese representative to deliver the loan installment as soon as possible, on receipt of which there would be a boom in Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves.
It is being told that Pakistan is going to repay the loan of $300 million to Bank of China in less than two weeks. The cash-strapped Islamic country is also expected to pay $1 billion to the China Development Bank within three weeks. On the other hand, the Central Bank of Pakistan had released the data that the country’s official foreign exchange reserves are now reduced to $ 3.9 billion, and any delay in loan installments could bring these reserves down to $ 3 billion. .
Pakistan’s Finance Ministry said in a statement, “The Finance Minister has updated China’s ‘Charge d’Affaires’ about the progress of negotiations with the IMF on the completion of the ninth review.” However, surprisingly, despite all efforts, the Pakistani government and the IMF have failed to reach a staff-level agreement on a $1.1 billion bailout package aimed at saving the country from bankruptcy.
