China approves USD 700 million loan to cash-strapped Pakistan: Finance Minister

Pakistans allweather ally China has approved a loan of USD 700 million to the cashstrapped country Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced on WednesdayThe announcement by Dar on the loan by the Board of China Development Bank came a day after Pakistans National Assembly unanimously passed a money bill aimed at raising tax revenues to fulfil the demands set by the International Monetary Fund IMF for seeking a USD 11 billion loan facility to avoid an economic meltdownFormalities have been completed and the Board of China Development Bank has approved the facility of USD 700 million for Pakistan This amount is expected to be received this week by the State Bank of Pakistan which will shore up its forex reserves Dar tweetedPakistan has a chronic balance of payments problem which was exacerbated in the last year with the countrys forex reserves declining to critical levelsAlso readMumbai trio travel to Turkiye to offer assistance in earthquakehit citiesAs of February 10 the central bank had only USD 32 billion in reserves enough to cover barely three weeks of importsTo stem dollar outflows the government has imposed restrictions allowing imports of only essential food items and medicines until a bailout is agreed upon with the IMF which is seen as essential for the country to stave off defaultThe government headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to implement measures to cut down on its expenditures by increasing taxes on the public and bringing down government expensesThe government has also ordered the Foreign Ministry to slash the number of missions abroad and reduce their offices and staff and initiate other measures to cut down expenditures of the debtridden nation by 15 per centIn November finance minister Dar said that Pakistan has secured a USD 13 billion bailout from China and Saudi Arabia with USD 57 billion in fresh loans Dar was confident that the cash would come before the IMF programme revivalHowever it became clear with time that Islamabads old allies refused to dole out more cash without the country first agreeing to the IMFs conditions That was when Pakistan had to invite the IMF mission to negotiate the deal The Express Tribune newspaper reportedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever