China has rolled over a USD 2.4 billion loan to Pakistan for two years to help the cash-strapped Islamic country.
“Chinese EXIM Bank has rolled over for 2 years principal amounts of following loans totalling US$ 2.4 billion which are due in next 2 fiscal years:
FY2023-24: US$1.2 billion
FY2024-25: US$ 1.2 billion
Pakistan will make interest payments only in both years,” Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said in a tweet on Thursday.
The development comes a little over a week after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that China had rolled over a USD 600 million loan to Pakistan to help its ailing economy.
This was in addition to over USD 5 billion in loans that China had rolled over for Pakistan in the last three months to help its key ally avert a default as negotiations to secure the IMF bailout dragged on.
Earlier, Pakistan secured a last-gasp USD 3 billion IMF bailout on June 30, which later disbursed an initial upfront installment of about USD 1.2 billion.
This was followed by a further USD 2 billion of financial support from Saudi Arabia and USD 1 billion from the UAE.
