World Bank approves USD 500 million loan for Pakistan
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World Bank has asked Pakistan to restructure the existing Debt Policy Coordination Office into a single Debt Management Office.
As the world battles coronavirus, a lot of countries have been having a hard time saving their economy. Pakistan, a country that has already been struggling economically, has seen a steep decline in the economy.
Due to this, the World Bank has approved a USD 500 million loan for Pakistan to help the country out of a major economic crisis.
World Bank has decided to help Pakistan once again after four years. This decision has been taken to help the country out of a major economy crisis allegedly caused due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a media report.
The money is to help the country get better access to quality healthcare and education, support economic opportunities for women and strengthen social safety nets as the country braces to limit the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a media organisation reported.
"Political risks are high because COVID-19 response adds uncertainty to the relations among the federating units," said the World Bank documents.
Pakistan has been given 30 years to return the money back to World Bank.
"The global COVID-19 pandemic is impacting day-to-day life in Pakistan, not solely from economic disruptions but also additional stress on public services that jeopardise human capital accumulation," said World Bank Country Director for Pakistan Illango Patchamuthu.
The World Bank documents underlined that the government had committed to staying the course and would be supported by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) to ensure that.
As the microeconomic risk is higher now, due to the pandemic, it is riskier and tougher for Pakistan.
World Bank has asked Pakistan to restructure the existing Debt Policy Coordination Office into a single Debt Management Office. The proposed structure will not just be a coordinating entity like the Debt Policy Coordination Office that only advises the finance minister.
(With inputs from PTI)