Accord signed with ADB for $1.5bn loan

Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday signed an agreement with Pakistan to provide a $1.5 billion loan for budgetary support and help flood-related rehabilitation and reconstruction activities. The loan agreement was signed by ADB’s Country Director Yong Ye and Secretary of Economic Affairs Division (EAD) Kazim Niaz. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, EAD Minister Ayaz Sadiq and ADB’s Director General for Central & West Asia Region Eugene Zhukov witnessed the ceremony. The loan, provided under ADB’s Building Resilience with Active Countercyclical Expenditures (BRACE) Programme, will help fund the government’s $2.3bn countercyclical development expenditure programme designed to cushion the impacts of external shocks, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.