ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has requested an additional 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) loan from China as the cash-strapped country has already used the existing 30 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) Chinese trade facility.
Finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, who met with China’s vice minister of finance Liao Min on the sidelines of recent IMF and the World Bank meetings in Washington, requested the Chinese side to raise the limits under its currency swap agreement to 40 billion yuan, a statement by the finance ministry said late Saturday.
If Beijing accepts, the total facility will reach about $5.7 billion. This is not the first time Pakistan has requested an increased debt limit. But Beijing has declined all past requests.
Islamabad’s latest request comes less than two weeks after China extended the current $4.3 billion (30 billion yuan) facility for another 3 years, pushing Pakistan’s debt repayment deadline to 2027.