ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) would extend $500 million as co-financing for a development programme in Pakistan.

“These funds will be received by the State Bank of Pakistan within November 2022,” Dar tweeted, as the cash-strapped nation desperately seeks financing to cushion the impact of floods. The BRACE (Building Resilience with Active Counteryclical Expenditures Programme) is an Asian Development Bank (ADB) financing programme to counter the social fallouts of economic crisis.

The funds would help shore up forex reserves held by the central bank, which were recorded at $8,912.9 million as of October 28 — providing an import cover of just over a month. The reserves are crucial for the country amid the current situation, where it has to also import edibles after the cataclysmic floods devastated the agricultural crops and dealt damages estimated at over $30 billion.

Published in The Daily National Courier, November, 10 2022

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