World Bank will lend $3.7 billion to Pakistan in the next four years

The World Bank will provide loan worth $3.7 billion to Pakistan over the next four years for development in various priority areas including poverty reduction support credit, financial management, energy, water, ports, and education sector.

World Bank will provide $924 million for Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC) and public financial management, $850 million for energy sector, $275 million for water and $1.115 billion for education sector.

World Bank will lend $300 million for social safety nets. It will provide another $100 million under Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) for the rehabilitation efforts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and Balochistan.

On August 7, 2010, World Bank published its Country Partnership Strategy report which said that during the CPS period, World Bank will lend Pakistan a total of $6.2 billion including MDTF.

The report said that Pakistan’s economy is still volatile and despite various steps taken by the government, there is high inflation and the conflict with Afghanistan is a major threat to the country’s political stability.

Based on Pakistan government’s medium term outlook, the report said that total government debt- internal and external, including the money government owes to IMF, would account for 62.4 percent of the country’s GDP against 59.3 percent in 2008/09.

About half of the debt is external and half domestic. Throughout the medium term, total debt would remain over 60 percent of GDP and will start to decline thereafter.