During his speech at the Senate of Pakistan, the Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Ishaq Dar, promised to raise the country’s Foreign Exchange (FX) reserves from $14 billion to $15 billion within the next 7 weeks.
He acknowledged that the past 11 months had been difficult, with rating agencies predicting a possible default for Pakistan due to the significant pressure of repaying a debt of $3 billion.
However, the Minister expressed gratitude for the support received from different countries, especially China. China extended the duration of a loan worth $2.4 billion by two years, which greatly helped Pakistan’s financial situation.
In the current month, Pakistan received a total of $4.2 billion in financial aid from various sources. This aid includes $2 billion from Saudi Arabia, $1 billion from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and $1.2 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of the approved Stand-By Agreement (SBA) of $3 billion, which was finalized on June 29.
Additionally, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) provided $300 million, as disclosed by the finance minister.
