WASHINGTON:
Pakistan has submitted a request to China to increase its existing exchange line by 10 billion yuan ($ 1.4 billion), said finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, and added that he expected the country to launch a Panda bail before the end of the year.
Pakistan already has a Yuan exchange line of 30 billion existing yuan, Abrangzeb told Reuters in an interview outside the International Monetary Fund and the spring meetings of the World Bank Group in Washington.
“From our perspective, reaching 40 billion Renminbi would be a good place to move forward … we just put that request,” said Aurengzeb.
The Central Bank of China has been promoting currency exchange lines with a series of emerging economies, including the likes of Argentina and Sri Lanka.
Pakistan has also progressed in the issuance of its first Panda bonus: debt issued in the China National Bond market, called in Yuan. The conversations with the presidents of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the two lenders who are online to provide credit improvements for the problem, had been constructive, he said.
“We want to diversify our loan base and we have made good progress around that, we hope that during this calendar year we can make an initial impression,” he said.
Meanwhile, Aurengzeb expected the IMF Executive Board to sign in early May in the personnel agreement on its new agreement of $ 1.3 billion under a program of climate resilience loans, as well as the first review of the rescue program of $ 7 billion in progress.
Obtaining the Green Light of the IMF Board would trigger a payment of $ 1 billion under the program, which the country assured in 2024 and has played a key role in the stabilization of Pakistan’s economy.
When asked about the economic consequences of tensions with India after the murder of 26 men in a tourist site earlier this month, Aurengzeb said that “it was not going to be useful.”
Aurengzeb estimated a growth of around 3% in the current financial year that ends in June 2025, and in the 4-5% range next year, in order to reach 6% from then on.
