The incumbent Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government has set a record by imprudently obtaining loans amounting to $23.7 billion from various international financial institutions (IFI) and other bilateral donors in the last three-and-a-half years in power. An official source said the biggest chunk of $8.9 billion was obtained from the IMF, while the government had also obtained loans totalling $14.8 billion from other IFIs and donors between March 25, 2008 and August 31, 2011.
The debt owed to IMF also includes $452 million as emergency natural disaster assistance for budgetary assistance during the last fiscal year. The loan portfolio of the government reveals that loans worth $3.9 billion were obtained from the Asian Development Bank, $3.3 billion from China, $2.6 billion from the World Bank, $1.2 billion from Islamic Development Bank and $1 billion from Japan. Pakistan’s close friend Saudi Arabia also provided loans of $644.9 million during the period. The loans have varying interest rates of 0.6 percent to 3.8 percent with maturity period of two to 50 years. The loans have to be returned within one to
30 years period.