Pak receives 1.3b USD from Asian Development Bank

Pakistan received $1.3 billion in loan from Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), shoring up the country's foreign currency reserves which had apparently shaken up after Islamabad made a notable foreign debt repayment last week.

"SBP has received $1.3 bn from Asian Development Bank (ADB)," the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported on Tuesday.

On December 2, Pakistan successfully made a foreign debt repayment of over $1 billion against maturing a five-year Sukuk. The Islamic/Shariah-compliant bond was issued in December 2014 at a rate of return of 6.75 per cent per year, The Express Tribune reported.

The central bank's next weekly update on the reserves position scheduled for Thursday was going to record the outflow. The reserves may, however, exactly not reflect the amount of over $1 billion paid in Sukuk considering accounting-in other inflows and outflows during the week ended December 6.

The country's foreign currency reserves hit an eight-month high at $9.11 billion with a net inflow of $431 million recorded in the week ended November 29.

Earlier, ADB had approved the financing of $1.3 billion including $1 billion under its crisis response facility to support the country pay off debt and another $300 million for energy sector reforms.

The bank extended the crisis response facility for a period of seven years.

ADB agreed to extend the financing following Pakistan entered the latest International Monetary Fund's (IMF) loan programme of $6 billion in May to improve its capacity to pay for imports and make foreign debt repayments.

IMF second tranche of $450 million is expected in late January or early February 2020. It paid the first tranche of close to $1 billion this July.