WASHINGTON: Multilateral donors and international markets have reposed tremendous confidence in Pakistan’s economic future, said Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as the country’s Eurobonds was subscribed three times over.

Speaking at the US Institute of Peace in Washington on Tuesday evening, the minister also said that the World Bank would provide $10 billion to Pakistan for development projects in the next five years.

In Islamabad, the Finance Ministry disclosed that a very positive response to Pakistan’s Eurobond enabled the government to raise $1 billion for five years and another $1 billion for 10 years.

The $1bn raised for the five-year tenure have a fixed rate of 7.25 per cent, 5.58pc over and above the benchmark five-year US Treasury rate. Another $1bn was generated through 10-year bonds at a fixed rate of 8.25pc, which is 5.56pc above the corresponding 10-year US Treasury benchmark rate.

According to the Wall Street Journal, almost two-thirds of the bonds went to US-based money managers.

The Pakistani delegation, which is in Washington for the World Bank spring meetings, claimed that the demand for the bonds indicated that Pakistani economy was improving and investors believed that this improvement would yield high returns for them.

The finance minister described the response as unprecedented, noting that “multilateral donors and international markets have reposed tremendous confidence in Pakistan’s economic future”.

Pakistani officials travelling with the minister hoped that the sale would also boost reserves and help Pakistan meet conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Last September, the IMF saved Pakistan from possible default by agreeing to lend it $6.7bn over three years. Pakistan has already received three tranches that total about $1.6bn.

Mr Dar hoped that Islamabad’s commitment to make best use of the country’s economic potential and growing international confidence in Pakistan’s policies would help sustain growth momentum in the years ahead. The government hopes to boost an estimated 4pc GDP growth rate to 6pc in the near future.

The minister told the audience that the World Bank would provide $10bn to Pakistan for development projects in the next five years. He said economic indicators in Pakistan had improved with 6.2pc increase in exports and 11pc increase in foreign remittances in the current fiscal year.

Mr Dar said economic growth rate was recorded at 4pc while the government had also been successful in curtailing fiscal deficit. Tax collections, he added, had also improved by 17pc.

The minister highlighted the government’s efforts to improve relations with India and assured New Delhi that Islamabad would reengage with it as soon as the new Indian government was formed.

Pakistan, he said, would work to offer non-discriminatory market access to (NDMA) India after negotiations with the new government following this week’s general elections.

“We have again got re-engaged with India in a very proactive manner in the last few month, in order to increase the trade between the two countries,” he said.

“The non-discriminatory market access is a new term we have coined for mutual expansion of the trade. We wish to minimise the negative list of both the countries,” Mr Dar said.

He said a government committee, headed by him, had reviewed the future roadmap of trade with India. “We have recommended to the cabinet and to the prime minister that this NMDA is to be proactively followed,” he said.

In his address to the US Institute of Peace, a think-tank, Mr Dar said: “Whosoever they elect let me assure you, the spadework is there, Indian establishment knows the entire detail. So as soon as a new government in India is sworn in, we will be happy to re-engage the Indian government on this subject”.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif recently deferred a decision on this issue.

Mr Dar said it was the PML-N, lead by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which triggered the process of dialogue with India way back in 1999.

The minister said the PML-N government also engaged the Congress government but later decided to wait till after the elections and negotiate these issues with the new government in New Delhi.