Islamabad: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced on Friday that China has rolled over a $2 billion loan that matured last week, providing relief during the nation’s acute balance of payment crisis.
Locking in a rollover had been critical for Pakistan, where reserves have dipped to just four weeks’ worth of imports and talks over an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout tranche of $1.1 billion have hit a stalemate.
Dar’s comments were the first official announcement of the rollover after the loan matured. However, the finance minister did not give the new maturity date or other terms of the arrangement. One of the IMF’s conditions for the release of the next tranche is assurance of external financing to fund Pakistan’s balance of payments.
(Islamabad51-Newsdesk)
