Skip to main content

Pakistan Seeks Billions In New Loans After Floods: Report

Pakistan Seeks Billions In New Loans After Floods: Report

Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif said the country needs money to rebuild damaged infrastructure (File)

Pakistan will ask international lenders for billions of dollars in loans after devastating floods exacerbated the South Asian nation's economic crisis, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

"We are not asking for any kind of measure [such as] a rescheduling or a moratorium," the country's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the Financial Times. "We are asking for additional funds."

The country needs "huge sums of money" for "mega undertakings" such as rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure damaged or washed away, the FT quoted Sharif as saying.

Sharif did not specify the amount Pakistan is seeking, but repeated an estimate of $30 billion of flood losses, the report said.

Earlier this month, the United Nations raised its humanitarian aid appeal for Pakistan five-fold to $816 million from $160 million, as a surge in water-borne diseases and fear of growing hunger pose new dangers after the unprecedented floods.

The European Union also scaled up its flood assistance to 30 million euros ($29.57 million).

A decline in Pakistan's currency is also pushing up the cost of imports, borrowing and debt servicing, and will further exacerbate inflation already running at a multi-decade high of 27.3%.

The estimated $30 billion in damage to the economy from the floods along with rising concerns about Islamabad's ability to raise money to meet external financing requirements has worsened the situation.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Adblock test (Why?)



from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/gfbaFEG https://ift.tt/aAgZiOo
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

North Korea Says It Tested New Strategic Cruise Missile

North Korea test-fired a new generation of strategic cruise missile on Wednesday. (Representational) Seoul: North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, Seoul's military said, the latest in a series of tension-raising moves by the nuclear-armed state. Hours later, North Korea appeared to confirm the firing, saying it had carried out its first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles it is developing, the Pulhwasal-3-31. Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an "underwater nuclear weapon system" and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile. "Our military detected several cruise missiles launched by North Korea towards the Yellow Sea at around 7:00 am today," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current UN sanctions against Pyongyang. Cruise...

18-Year-Old Killed By Friends Over Mobile Game Password In Bengal: Cops

According to cops, accused "friends" attempted to burn the victim after killing him. (Representational) Kolkata: An argument over sharing the password of an online mobile game allegedly led to the murder of a teenage boy by four of his friends in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, a senior police officer said. The body of 18-year-old Papai Das, who had been missing since January 8, was discovered near Nishindra Ghat of the feeder canal in Farakka on Monday, police said. Papai, a class 10 student, was reportedly killed by his four "close" friends after a disagreement over sharing the password for a mobile online game. The accused individuals have been arrested, police added. "These five individuals used to play online games at one of the quarters of the Farakka Barrage. The victim went out on the evening of January 8 and never returned. On January 9, the family lodged a police complaint. "Based on preliminary investigations, we discovered that...

Russian Mercenary Arm Wagner Groups Says Moscow Army Attacked Its Forces

Russian mercenary group Wagner said that Moscow attacked on its rear camps. Moscow: The chief of Russian mercenary group Wagner on Friday accused Moscow's military leadership of ordering strikes on their camps and killing a "huge" number of forces. "We were ready to make concessions to the defence ministry, surrender our weapons," Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a furious audio message released by his spokespeople. "Today, seeing that we have not been broken, they conducted missile strikes at our rear camps." (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) Adblock test (Why?) from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/J4lDwvL https://ift.tt/w7JfFhE via IFTTT