ISLAMABAD: The government denied it would be making any formal request to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout.
The government is aiming to raise gross borrowings of $10.6 billion during the last quarter of present financial year 2017-18, reported The News.
According to official sources, the government aims to raise $10.6 billion via short-term commercial borrowings, receiving disbursements of loans from bilateral and multilateral creditors and exploring the possibility of issuing a Eurobond by 30th June 2018.
But adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Economic Affairs, Dr. Miftah Ismail said there was no chance of Pakistan seeking IMF’s assistance for another bailout package.
Also, official sources corroborated the government intends to raise $3.5 billion via short-term commercial borrowings, from which $1-1.5 billion will be received from Chinese banks in April.
The remaining $2 billion of short-term borrowing will be obtained in May and June 2018 respectively. They shared Pakistan had already obtained $1.77 billion during first eight months of current financial year 2017-18.
They added, the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and Finance Ministry had worked out the project loans to be obtained from every bilateral and multilateral credits at around $4 to $5 billion in the remainder of present financial year 2017-18.
Raising funds via the issuance of Eurobond is still an option up the sleeve of the government and a conclusive decision in this regard will by taken by end-April or May contingent on the appetite of international bond market.
An official said the Eurobond issuance can be concluded after a week of issuing the notice and highlighted it was contingent on advice of their financial advisers who would tell whether to tap the international bonds market or not.
