By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Thursday that China has rolled over a $2.4 billion loan to Islamabad for a period of two years, a boost to the South Asian economy as it tries to build its foreign reserves after clinching an IMF deal.
“Chinese Exim bank rolled over principal amounts totaling $ 2.4 bln which are due in next 2 fiscal years,” he said in a post on social platform X, formerly Twitter.
Pakistan will make interest payments only over the next two years, Dar said.
Longtime ally Beijing in recent months either rolled over or granted new loans worth around $5 billion as negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dragged out over eight months, according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Tom Hogue)