Pakistan not in IMF Covid-19 relief list, Afghanistan among recipients
Islamabad/IBNS: Pakistan PM Imran Khan received a jolt recently when despite demanding for a COVID-19 relief, he was denied so by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The South Asian country it seems is not among the nations where the international body extended its help.
The IMF extended the relief to neighbouring Afghanistan.
The IMF recently announced immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said in a statement: "This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts."
"The CCRT can currently provide about US$500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent US$185 million pledge by the U.K. and US$100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources," she said.
"Others, including China and the Netherlands, are also stepping forward with important contributions. I urge other donors to help us replenish the Trust’s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries,” she said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan PM imran Khan had recently appealed to international stakeholders for urgent debt relief for developing countries so that they can deal more effectively with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak.
"Pakistan with a population of 220 million, so far the best stimulus package we can afford is $8 billion," Khan said in the video, as quoted as saying by Business Today.
Pakistan currently has 6146 COVID-19 cases.
The country has reported 113 deaths.
The countries that will receive debt service relief today are:
Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo, and Yemen.
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