Pakistan will ask international lenders for billions of dollars in loans after devastating floods exacerbated the country’s economic crisis, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
“We aren’t asking for any kind of measure(similar as) a cataloging or a moratorium,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the Financial Times. “We’re asking for fresh finances.”
The country needs “huge sums of money” for “mega undertakings” similar to rebuilding roads, islands, and other structures damaged or washed down, the FT quoted Shehbaz as saying.
The high minister didn’t specify the quantum Pakistan is seeking, but repeated an estimate of $30 billion of flood tide losses, the report said.
Before this month, the United Nations raised its philanthropic aid appeal for Pakistan five-fold to $816 million from $160m, as a swell in water-borne conditions and fear of growing hunger pose new troubles after unknown cataracts.
The European Union also gauged up its flood tide backing to 30m euros.
A decline in the Pakistani rupee is also pushing up the cost of significance, borrowing, and debt servicing, and will further complicate affectation formerly running at multi-decade highs.
The estimated $30bn in damage to the frugality from cataracts along with rising enterprises about Islamabad’s capability to raise concern to meet external backing conditions has worsened the situation.
Source: Dawn News/ Financial Times
