Breaking News - $500 Million Loan received

KARACHI -- According to breaking news, Pakistan has received a $500 million loan from the World Bank to help stabilize its economy, an official at the country's central bank told esolgsmnews Tuesday.

This loan is interest-free and for 35 years, said the State Bank of Pakistan one of higher officials, who didn't want to be named, latest news.

The loan is provided from the bank's International Development Association aimed at helping protect the poor and improving the country's competitiveness by shoring up the financial sector and cutting barriers to starting a business.

"Besides this, the arrival of inflows from the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank amounting to $1.44 billion in coming days will help strengthen the rupee," Mr. Imran stated as per breaking news.

"The loan from the World Bank will help contain the current account deficit, which in the year ended June 30, 2008, ballooned to more than $14 billion, putting immense pressure on the country's forex reserves," stated by Mohammed Imran, head of research at First Capital Equities Ltd., a Karachi-based brokerage house.

But, in order to help exports, the central bank may not allow the rupee to rise, Mr. Imran more added.

The International Monetary Fund's executive board approved a disbursement of $847.1 million of a loan to Pakistan, as the country's growth outlook worsened, at Monday.

The additional access to funds follows the first review of the $7.6 billion, 23-month standby facility the IMF granted Pakistan in November, bringing the total disbursements under the program to $3.9 billion.

According to the more breaking news, Pakistan has experienced severe external and internal shocks in the past year and is confronting a very difficult macroeconomic situation, according to World Bank. The rise in international oil and food prices sharply inflated the country's import bill and the subsequent slowdown in the global economy dampened demand for Pakistan's exports.

Also, political turmoil and uncertainty affected investor confidence which, together with macroeconomic imbalances, led to capital outflows, the World Bank said in a press release here on March 27.

As per news latest breaking stories, according to latest State Bank of Pakistan data, the country's foreign exchange reserves rose to $10.161 billion in the week ended March 14 from $10.053 billion the previous week.