Covid-19: Pakistan received $3.7b grants, loans
Pakistan received $3.7b worth of grants and loans from various countries to support the country's corona relief efforts.
According to the details, the European Union provided a grant of $57 million while the United States, Japan, Asian Development Bank (ADB), China, and UK dispatched the grants of $31 million, $28 million, $7 million, $4 million, and $3 million respectively.
Out of total an amount of $73.99 million had been disbursed to the concerned institutions and authorities.
Similarly, Pakistan also received loans from different countries and institutions for various healthrelated projects.
The World Bank (WB) provided a loan of $500 million, ADB $350 million, Islamic Development Bank $70m, OPEC Fund $50m, and French AFG provided $51m. Out of total loans, an amount of $380m was disbursed among the provinces for different projects.
Further, regarding the budgetary support under which the International Monetary Fund (IMF)provided $1.386 billion, ADB $500 million, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank dispatched $750m.
Under the head of budgetary support, the country received $2.636 billion in total and all amounts had been utilised; the funds were received in the State Bank of Pakistan account from where the money was disbursed to the concerned agencies.
The chairman of the Senate Standing
Committee has asked the concerned officials to provide it with details of medical equipment received by the government from various international agencies and countries during Covid-19 in the next meeting of the committee.
The exchange rate of Pakistani rupee against the US dollar remained stable in the interbank trading on Wednesday and closed at Rs 166.22 .
However, according to Forex Association of Pakistan, the buying and selling rates of dollar in open market were recorded at Rs 165.9 and Rs 166.4 respectively.
The State Bank of Pakistan reported that in interbank trading, the price of euro depreciated by 78 paisas and closed at Rs 194.38 against the last day's trading of Rs 195.16.