Pakistan has signed a $772 million loan agreement for flood relief with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), taking the total loan for the year to $2.7 billion with the agency.
Ayaz Sadiq, the minister for economic affairs, and Yevgeniy Zhukov, the director general of the ADB, reportedly saw the signing of five loans totaling $772.6 million for irrigated agriculture projects, skill development, and flood rehabilitation across Pakistan.
Minister for Economic Affairs Ayaz Sadiq and ADB DG Yevgeniy Zhukov witnessed signing of 5 loans worth $772.6 million by Sec EAD Kazim Niaz and ADB DCD Asad Aleem for #floodreconstruction, #skilldevelopment, #powertransmission, irrigated #agriculture projects across #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/soFBGCfqxw
— ADBPakistan (@PakistanADB) December 15, 2022
Floods caused by abnormal monsoon rains and a melting glacier submerged huge swathes of the country earlier this year and killed nearly 1,700 people including children and women.
Minister Ayaz Sadiq said the concessionary ADB loan was signed at the rate of 1% for a period of 40 years.
The impression that’s being spread is that God forbid, Pakistan is going to be bankrupt, or it is in financial crisis. There is nothing like that,” Sadiq said in a recorded message.
“Had there been such a situation, the ADB wouldn’t have signed these loans with us today.”
Pakistan is struggling to meet its external financing obligations in the face of low foreign exchange reserves that are barely enough to cover a month of imports.
