ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday made repayments of $137 million loan to Islamic Development Bank (IDB) after its request for an extension to grant another rollover on short-term commodity financing got rejected.
These loans were procured to finance petroleum imports and IDB from July to first half of December has already released around $1 billion in shape of commodity financing and rollover of loans, reported The News.
A top official of the Finance Division disclosed Pakistan tried its utmost best to get another rollover for $137 million obtained from IDB, but the bank rejected its request to grant another extension considering Islamabad had successfully raised $2.5 billion from the international debt markets via Sukuk and Eurobonds.
International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) is a self-governing entity within the Islamic Development Bank Group whose purpose is to advance trade for improving economic condition and livelihood of people across Islamic countries.
ITFC has merged all its trade finance businesses within IDB group, which were once managed by various departments. It initiated operations in January 2008.
According to the senior Finance Division official, Economic Affairs Division met with Ministry of Finance and representatives of provinces on Friday to increase efforts for maxing out disbursements in loans and grants from bilateral and multilateral creditors during Jan-June period of current financial year.
He added, “Our current account projections will depend on multiple factors, including making efforts to maximize dollar inflows from the donors in the remaining period of the current fiscal, and it cannot be achieved without geared efforts from EAD and provinces in order to achieve deliverables on accounts of timely implementation on donor funded development projects.”
