Islamabad: In order to help ease Pakistan’s funding crunch and consequent risk of default, Qatar is expected to give Islamabad funds worth $ 2 billion in bilateral support, Bloomberg reported.

Ahead of International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) board meeting scheduled to be held on August 29, Pakistan has secured financing worth $ 4 billion from friendly countries which was a prerequisite to reviving stalled Fund programme.

Pakistan will also receive $ 1 billion in oil financing from Saudi Arabia and a similar amount in investments from UAE. State Bank of Pakistan Acting Governor Murtaza Syed in a briefing said: “All funds are expected over twelve months.”

Syed said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is travelling to Qatar on August 23 and 24 and an announcement of assistance from Doha may or may not be announced during trip. Earlier today, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail met his Qatari counterpart Ali bin Ahmed Al-Kuwari to discuss bilateral relations and explore areas of joint cooperation.

Assistance will improve position of foreign exchange reserves and will further strengthen local rupee which was best performer globally this month according to data tracked by Bloomberg.

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 23 2022

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