Foreign loan target missed amid major slippages

Pakis­tan received only about $9.8 billion in foreign loans and grants in the first nine months (July-March) of the current fiscal year, far behind the annual target of $17.4bn, amid major slippages in raising international financial support. The disbursements app­e­ared to be slowing down as the country rec­eived less than $204 million in foreign loans in March compared to $318m in February, acc­ording to official data. The Ministry of Econ­o­mic Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday said the government could materialise about $6.899bn in foreign economic assista­nce (FEA) in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, almost 39pc of the annual budget target, amid limited borro­wing avenues in the wake of poor credit rating and adverse conditions in the global financial markets des­pite the support of the Interna­tional Monetary Fund (IMF).