Pakistan is looking to raise up to $4 billion from commercial banks in the Middle East by the next fiscal year as it seeks to plug external financing gaps, central bank governor Jameel Ahmed told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
In a wide-ranging interview, his first with any media organization since taking office in 2022, Ahmed said Pakistan was in the “advanced stages” of securing an additional $2 billion in external financing needed to win approval from the International Monetary Fund for a $7 billion bailout program.
Pakistan and the IMF reached an agreement on the loan in July, but it is still awaiting approval by the IMF’s executive board and “timely confirmation of necessary financing assurances from Pakistan’s development and bilateral partners.”
