No attempt was made to reduce wasteful government spending or energy usage. No attempt was made to win back external creditors who have dumped Pakistani assets, unnerved by highly irresponsible comments from key policymakers. Promises made to the IMF were broken and wild accusations were hur
Such a rollover is critical for Pakistan, whose foreign exchange reserves have fallen to four weeks' worth of imports at a time when it is seeking a $1.1 billion IMF bailout tranche.
In its weekly bulletin, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said that its foreign exchange reserves have decreased as of the week ended March 24, which will provide an import cover of less than a month.
Amid the depreciating value of the Pakistani Rupee and shortage of foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan faces a critical shortage of live-saving drugs, Pakistan based The News International reported citing local media.
India's foreign exchange reserves rose sharply by USD 12.798 billion to USD 572.801 billion in the week ending March 17, according to the Reserve Bank of India's latest data.
It should be noted that Pakistan and the IMF have been negotiating since early February on an agreement that would release USD 1.1 billion to the cash-strapped, nuclear-armed country of 220 million people and its supercritical for the liquidity-challenged country, whose deficient foreign exc
India's foreign exchange reserves declined by about USD 2.4 billion to USD 560.003 billion in the week ending on March 10, according to the Reserve Bank of India's latest data.
Notwithstanding the fact that crisis-hit country has completed a major part of IMF conditionality, glitches still remain with regard to external financing requirement.
The reserves rose USD 1.46 billion at the end of last week after falling by a total of USD 15.8 billion in the previous four weeks, the RBI's statistical supplement showed on Friday.
Saudi deposits nod is crucial for clinching the IMF deal as Pakistan facing difficulty in its talks with IMF due to China-US hostility and IMF is reluctant to give any time frame for finalising the deal while the country is in economic chaos.
Taking to Twitter, Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced, " Formalities completed [and] Chinese Bank, ICBC approved rollover of USD 1.3 billion facilities which has been repaid by Pakistan to ICBC in recent months."