WASHINGTON: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates plan to offer loans totaling nearly $2 billion to Pakistan to help the beleaguered South Asian country escape its ongoing financial crisis, a former IMF official said.
Mohsin Khan, the former International Monetary Fund director for the Middle East and South Asia, told a small group of experts in Washington about the amounts Pakistan can expect to receive from other donors, including those from the Kingdom as well as UAE.
Khan, who was intimately involved in the negotiations of the $7.6 billion IMF bailout package for Pakistan just before he retired this week, said that the IMF program has paved the way for other funds to be mobilized toward Pakistan.He said he expects to see $1 billion from the UAE and anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion from Saudi Arabia for Pakistan’s recovery program.
Khan also noted that Pakistan will also likely receive $2.2 billion from the Asian Development Bank, $1.4 billion from the World Bank, and $500 million from China.
Khan offered a gloomy outlook for the 2008-09 in Pakistan, predicting 2-3 percent growth for the year. “Given population growth, these numbers are in fact a recession,” he said. “Full recovery is a long way off,” Khan noted.
