Pakistan Receives $700 Million In Additional Loans From Communist China And Requests Extension Of All Loans

On February 22nd, Pakistan’s Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar issued a news release saying that China Development Bank (CDB)has approved a loan of $700 million to Pakistan and the relevant procedures have been completed. The State Bank of Pakistan expects to receive the money this week. It is reported that this huge sum is an unplanned loan from Communist China to Pakistan.

Pakistan reportedly has two more commercial loans from Communist China coming due, for $500 million and $800 million, respectively. The Pakistani government hopes to secure a loan of up to $2 billion by the end of February or the first week of March by refinancing with Communist China. It has also requested that refinancing of all other maturing Chinese loans be made available promptly as well. Currently, Pakistan is in a severe balance of payments crisis and its foreign exchange reserves have fallen to their lowest level in nine years, at less than $3 billion. Pakistan has had import capacity for just over two weeks and urgently needs $1 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under a $6.5 billion Extended Fund loan.

The IMF demanded that Pakistan needs to secure additional sources of external financing and on the other hand also demanded extra power surcharges and higher interest rates for Pakistan. Analysts pointed out that in current Communist China, the money is scrambling to escape, meanwhile, Xi’s government is still wantonly squandering the wealth of the people, sparking public discontent.