By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has secured new commitments worth $2.166 billion from development partners in the seven months to March 2024, the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) said on Tuesday.
The commitments include $888 million from the World Bank, $706 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and $250 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), official data showed.
The EAD stressed the need for prudent external debt management and strong institutional arrangements to improve repayment capacity.
“Debt can be productive if used for creating assets that generate positive returns and externalities,” the EAD said. “However, dependence on external debt must be closely monitored and managed.”
Disbursements totaled $6.904 billion, mainly for energy and power ($404 million), floods-2022 ($234 million), construction ($200 million), agriculture ($155 million), transport and communication ($154 million), health and nutrition ($144 million), governance, research, and statistics ($105 million), water ($97 million), and physical planning and housing ($61 million).
The World Bank, ADB, and AIIB were the largest contributors among multilateral development partners, with contributions of $1.482 billion, $666 million, and $304 million, respectively.
Saudi Arabia and China were the largest bilateral contributors, disbursing $657 million and $576 million, respectively.
Pakistan’s total external public debt stood at $86.683 billion as of March 31, 2024. Debt servicing payments totaled $8.086 billion, including $5.363 billion in principal repayments and $2.723 million in interest payments.
The net transfers resulted in a positive balance of $909 million.
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