Chinese Bank approves $1.3bln loan for Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister (FM) Ishaq Dar has claimed that the Chinese Bank ICBC has approved rollover of 1.3 billion US dollar loan after completing the necessary formalities.

His statement came just a day after Bloomberg reported that bondholders were bracing for a potential default by Pakistan as the beleaguered nation Pakistan struggled to meet billions of dollars in debt repayments by June.

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The Bloomberg had further claimed “Pakistan’s dollar bonds due next year slid to the lowest since November on Thursday as investors weighed its ability to honor $7 billion of repayments in the coming months, including a Chinese loan of $2 billion due in March, according to Fitch Ratings.”

Taking to Twitter late last night, Dar said Chinese Bank ICB approved rollover of USD 1.3 billion facility which had repaid by Pakistan to ICBC in recent months.

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He further said the facility would be disbursed in 3 instalments, first one of USD 500 million had been received by the State Bank of Pakistan and would result in increasing forex reserves.