Islamabad confident UAE will rollover $1bn loan
The finance ministry has said that it is “confident” that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will rollover the $1 billion loan that matured on Friday, quelling reports that Dubai had withdrawn the financial support.
The loan was part of the $6.2 billion initial bailout that the UAE had announced in late 2018, helping the government to avoid default on international debt obligations.
“Pakistan and the UAE are great friends and we are confident of a rollover”, said Finance Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal.
A senior ministry official said that the money was not going back and the UAE has informed Pakistan that it would rollover the $1 billion.
Out of the committed $6.2 billion, the UAE disbursed $2 billion. It did not make the $3.2 billion oil financing facility and also withheld last $1 billion cash disbursements.
Finance ministry sources had told The Express Tribune that less disbursements by the UAE as against the commitments were because of Pakistan’s decision to avail $500 million cash support from Qatar.
The UAE has already rolled over $1 billion deposit for another year, which matured in January this year. The UAE decision to rollover its loans provided a breathing space to Pakistan.
The financial assistance packages announced by Saudi Arabia and the UAE helped Pakistan to buy time to negotiate a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But the implementation of the IMF deal is also stalled for last 13 months, which is now expected to be revived in the fourth week of this month.
Pakistan had returned the Saudi loan by securing three different financing pipelines from China. Beijing gave $1 billion as soft loan, a credit-swap financing line of $1.5 billion and $500 million commercial loan from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
