Cash-strapped Pakistan inks 3 loan deals worth USD 918 million with World Bank

Pakistan on Tuesday, June 18 signed three loan agreements worth a total of USD 918 million with World Bank, Prime Minister Imran Khan's viser on finance has said as cash-strapped country tries to overcome a ballooning balance-of-payments crisis that threatens to cripple its ecomy.

amount will be used to fund three projects -- USD 400 million each on Pakistan Raises Revenue Program and Higher Education Development in Pakistan and USD 118 million on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Mobilisation and Resource Manment Program, Dawn news reported.

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Prime Minister Khan's viser Shaikh witnessed signing of three agreements between Country Director of World Bank Patchamuthu Illangovan and Ecomic Affairs Division Secretary or Ahmed, representatives of  Higher Education Commission and Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Sheikh thanked World Bank "for extending ir continuous support to Pakistan's government in its efforts to achieve sustainable ecomic development of country".

Pakistan is seeking help from multiple lenders like IMF, World Bank and  B to overcome a ballooning balance of payments crisis.

Last month, it reached an agreement in principle with  International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a three-year, USD 6 billion bailout pack aimed at shoring up its finances and strengning a slowing ecomy.

Meanwhile,  Asian Development Bank (B) has said it is holding meetings with Pakistan on loans.

"se discussions are ongoing and details of plans as well as volume of B's financial support, once finalised, will be contingent upon approval of B manment and its Board of Directors," B's Country Director for Pakistan Xiaohong Yang said.

China is investing heavily in Pakistan under USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Ecomic Corridor (CPEC).

Launched in 2015, CPEC is a planned network of ros, railways and energy projects linking China's resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Automous Region with Pakistan's strategic Gwar Port on  Arabian Sea.

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US has serious reservations over global lenders like IMF providing a bailout to Pakistan to pay off Chinese debts.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in past warned that any potential IMF bailout for Pakistan should t provide funds to pay off Chinese lenders, saying "we will be watching what IMF does... re is rationale for IMF tax dollars and associated with that American dollar that are part of IMF funding, for those to go to bail out Chinese bondholders or China itself".