Pakistan will receive $3.4 billion in budgetary support from the Asian Development Bank (ABD), the de facto finance minister said on Saturday, as the government seeks help to overcome a ballooning balance of payments crisis. The ADB financing would come on top of the IMF loan, with most of the funds to be disbursed in the current fiscal year. “The ADB will provide $3.4 billion in budgetary support,” de facto Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh said on Twitter. “$2.2 billion will be released this fiscal year (FY), starting in the first quarter of FY 2019-20. Political analysts say that while the IMF programme may help stabilise the economy, it could bring more hardship due to austerity measures.

Source: Hindustan Times June 15, 2019 15:00 UTC