ISLAMABAD: With four major factors, including resumption of Saudi Oil Facility (SOF) and increased loans from commercial banks, Pakistan has secured foreign loans of $12.4 billion in financial year 2025.
In FY24, total disbursement in the form of foreign loans and grants stood at $9.8 billion. This indicates Pakistan has obtained $2.6 billion more dollar inflows as external loans in FY25 compared to the same period of previous FY24.
However, World Bank’s loan in the form of IBRD and IDA was lower than budgetary estimates. The WB has disbursed $392 million as IBRD loan against budgetary estimates of $550.2 million. The WB’s IDA loan stood at $1.37 billion against budgetary estimates of $1.525 billion.
The total amount of external loans does not include the money obtained from IMF, which stood at $2.1 billion. Secondly, rollover of $9 billion in the form of Time Deposit and SAFE deposits from Kingdom of Saudi secured, but Economic Affairs Division (EAD) preferred to keep mum. However, Islamabad has secured rollover from both the respective countries.
The four factors helped Islamabad to secure more dollar inflows than budgetary estimates, including increased loan disbursement from Asian Development Bank, Commercial loans, Naya Pakistan Certificate and Saudi Oil Facility (SOF) in the shape of $100 million per month during FY 2025 ended on June 30, 2025.
The disbursement in the shape of SOF was hovering around $200 million in FY25 and disbursed in last two months of previous fiscal year.
According to EAD data released on Tuesday, Pakistan obtained $4.838 billion from multilateral creditors in FY25 against budgetary estimates of $4.577 billion. The bilateral loans also surpassed budgetary projections from friendly countries, as Islamabad secured $600 million inflows in FY25 against budgetary estimates of $471 million.
Pakistan could not materialise launching of international bond in FY25 against budgetary estimates of $1 billion, mainly because of increased interest rates in international markets, especially in US.
Through Naya Pakistan Certificates, government secured $1.9 billion in FY25 against budgetary estimates of $0.46 billion.
Pakistan has obtained $483 million as guaranteed loan from China in FY25. From multilateral creditors, ADB has disbursed $2.13 billion in FY25 against budgetary estimates of $1.65 billion.
The AIIB disbursed $110.37 million against budgetary estimates of $41.39 million. Among bilateral partners, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia disbursed $221.27 million in FY25 against budgetary estimates of $71 million.
Disbursement of foreign commercial loans stood at $4.297 billion in FY25 against budgetary estimates of $3.779 billion.