ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank has assured to provide 1.7 billion dollars to Pakistan to fight the impacts of coronavirus.

The assurance was given by the President of the bank during a virtual meeting with Minister for Economic Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar.

The bank will approve 800 million dollars budget support by June this year.  It will provide the next tranche of nine hundred million dollars by the end of this year.

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The budget support will be provided to Pakistan on special concessionary basis.

The Minister for Economic Affairs thanked the Asian Development Bank for extending the financial cooperation to Pakistan.

On Apr 16, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had approved 1.386 billion dollars disbursement to Pakistan under the Rapid Financing Instrument to address the economic impact of COVID-19 Pandemic.

In a statement, the IMF had said with the near-term outlook deteriorating sharply, Pakistan swiftly put in place measures to contain the impact of the shock and support economic activity. It had said crucially, health spending had increased and social support strengthened.

The IMF support will help provide a backstop against the decline in international reserves and provide financing to the budget for targeted and temporary spending increases aimed at containing the pandemic and mitigating its economic impact.