ABDUL RASHEED AZAD

ISLAMABAD: Inflows of foreign assistance into the country during July 2025 to April 2026 reached USD 11.068 billion, compared to USD 6.6 billion in the corresponding period last year, reflecting a 67.7 percent increase.

According to data released by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) here on Tuesday, the multilateral, bilateral loans and grants in April 2026 remained USD395.63 million compared to USD339.84 million in March 2026.

According to the data, in April 2026, the country received a total of USD103.39 million on account of bilateral loans and grants, of which USD 101.68 million was a loan from Saudi Arabia and USD0.09 million from Germany. On account of multilateral loans, in April, Pakistan received a total USD 273.01 million in loans, of which the IDB provided a USD 203.93 million loan, ADB USD 35.27 million, IRBD USD 24.36 million, and AIIB USD 9.44 million.

In the July-April 2025-26, the total bilateral loans and grants stood at USD 1.27 billion, of which USD 2.62million stood as grants and USD 1.226billion as loans; whereas multilateral grants and loans amounted to USD 2.878 billion during the period under review, of which USD 74.01 million stood as grants and USD2.804 billion as loans.

A major amount of grants came from Japan (USD 19.20 million), followed by China (USD 10.57 million), Saudi Arabia (USD 3.31 million), and USD 3.32 million from Germany. In 10 months of 2025-26, the total bilateral loans amounted to USD 2.804 billion. This includes Chinese guaranteed loans of USD292.82 million and a USD72.28 million loan from China, USD 71.15 million from Denmark, a USD49.99 million loan from France, and a major loan of USD 1.011billion received from Saudi Arabia.

The total multilateral grant received during the July-April period amounted to USD74.01 million. Out of this USD42.85 million came from IBRD, USD13.17 million from the IDA, USD 2.72 million from IFAD, and USD 15.16 million from the Asian Development Bank.

The total multilateral loans in the same period reached USD2.804 billion. The IDA was the top lender with USD1.024 billion, followed by the ADB with USD 747.12 million, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) short-term loan of USD 483.78 million, the IBRD with USD374.76 million, AIIB with USD 98.30 million, IDB with USD 56.13 million and IFAD with USD 18.67 million.

Foreign commercial borrowing through the Naya Pakistan Certificate (NPC) scheme amounted to USD330.49 million in April 2026, comprising USD 87.23 million under the conventional facility and USD 243.26 million under the Islamic facility, bringing the cumulative NPC total to USD 2.037 billion for July–April.

A notable development during April was the recording of USD3 billion from Saudi Arabian time deposits, which significantly elevated the headline monthly financing figure. This single inflow accounted for the bulk of April’s total disbursements. In terms of the purpose of financing, non-project aid in April amounted to USD4.21 billion, including USD4.075 billion in budgetary support and USD 100million through the SFD Oil Facility, underscoring continued reliance on programme-based inflows to support macroeconomic stabilisation.