China rolls over 3 4 billion of commercial loans to Pakistan says source

KARACHI, Pakistan - China has rolled over $3.4 billion in loans to Islamabad, which together with other recent commercial and multilateral lending will boost Pakistans foreign exchange reserves to $14 billion, a finance ministry source said on Sunday.

Beijing rolled over $2.1 billion, which has been in Pakistans central banks reserves for the last three years, and refinanced another $1.3 billion commercial loan, which Islamabad had paid back two months ago, the source said.

Another $1 billion from Middle Eastern commercial banks and $500 million from multilateral financing have also been received, he said.

This brings our reserves in line with the IMF target, he said.

The loans, especially the Chinese ones, are critical to shoring up Pakistans low foreign reserves, which the IMF required to be over $14 billion at the end of the current fiscal year on June 30.

Pakistani authorities say that the countrys economy has stabilised through ongoing reforms under a $7 billion IMF bailout. REUTERS

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