ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday announced State Bank of Pakistan received $500 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) that would help mitigate damages caused by devastating floods.The Beijing-based multilateral lending agency has transferred $500 million today, as per their board’s approval, to the State Bank of Pakistan as programme financing, the minister announced through his Twitter account.
This amount is co-financing of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded Building Resilience with Active Countercyclical Expenditure (BRACE) programme for Pakistan. The board of the AIIB approved the funds on Nov 10.
The ADB had late last month transferred a $1.5bn loan under BRACE programme for budgetary support and to help flood-related rehabilitation and reconstruction activities.
The BRACE programme loan is aimed to provide social protection, promote food security, and support employment for people amid devastating floods and global supply chain disruptions.
The ADB’s $1.5bn BRACE support to Pakistan under countercyclical programmes was earlier planned for post-Covid recovery.
Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2022
