Foreign aid receipts plummet 85 percent in July

By Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign assistance receipts slumped 85 percent to $436.4 million in July, a meager start to the fiscal year, as the country awaits approval of a $7 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board.

The July inflows, comprising $426 million in loans and $10.5 million in grants, pale in comparison to the $2.89 billion received in the same month last year, when Pakistan secured a major injection of $2 billion in time deposits from Saudi Arabia and $1 billion from the United Arab Emirates.

Pakistan has budgeted $19.393 billion in foreign aid for the fiscal year 2024-25, including $19.216 billion in loans and $176.29 million in grants. However, the country still awaits the IMF’s board approval for a $7 billion package.

According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the government secured just 0.8 percent of its budgeted non-project assistance, totaling $128.93 million, against a full-year target of $15.986 billion. Multilateral and bilateral lenders disbursed $201.01 million and $107.68 million, respectively.

Project aid inflows reached 9 percent of the budgeted estimate, with $307.46 million disbursed against a full-year target of $3.406 billion. No disbursements were made under time deposits, including the $5 billion KSA time deposit and $4 billion SAFE China deposit, in July.

Disbursements from multilateral and bilateral lenders included $54.05 million from the Asian Development Bank, $111.88 million from IDA, and $20.54 million from IBRD.

The full-year target of $19.393 billion includes $5.05 billion from multilateral and bilateral lenders, $1 billion in international bonds, $3.8 billion in foreign commercial loans, and $5 billion in time deposits from Saudi Arabia.

The government also expects $465 million in inflows through Naya Pakistan Certificates and $100 million from ECO Trade Bank. However, the dismal start to the fiscal year raises concerns about Pakistan’s ability to meet its ambitious target, echoing last year’s struggles when the government budgeted $22.8 billion in foreign assistance but only materialized $10.8 billion, a mere 46 percent of the target.