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 bonus before the end of the year.
Pakistan already has an existing line of 30 billion yuan, said Aurengzeb. Reuters In an interview on the margin of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 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 towards […] 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, a 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 people in a tourist site earlier this month, Aurengzeb said that “it was not going to be useful.”
After the attack, the two nations have unleashed a series of measures with each other, with Pakistan closing their airspace to the Indian airlines and suspending commercial ties, and India suspending the 1960 Indus Water Treaty that regulates the shared water from the Indo River and its tributaries.
Commercial flows between the two countries had already fallen sharply after past frictions and totaled only $ 1.2 billion last year.
Aurengzeb estimated a growth of about three percent in the current financial year, which ends in June 2025, and in the range of 4-5pc next year, in order to reach 6 pieces from then on.
($ 1 = 7,2864 Yuan Renminbi Chino)
