China has rolled over its safe deposit of $2 billion with Pakistan on the existing terms as Islamabad’s foreign exchange reserves escaped further decline.
China has handed over $2 billion, according to sources in the finance ministry, in a significant milestone toward securing a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Pakistan needed to confirm external finance with the IMF in order to restart the loan programme that had stopped.
Beijing has rolled over the safe deposit with Pakistan for a year. According to officials in the finance ministry last week, Pakistan was in talks to get $1 billion from the United Arab Emirates and $2 billion each from China and Saudi Arabia.
Ishaq Dar, the minister of finance, had earlier promised that the staff-level agreement with the IMF will be made public. Which proved wrong again.
