Pakistan signs $475 mln flood loan deal with ADB

Pakistan has signed a $475 million loan agreement for flood relief with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the country’s economic affairs minister said on Thursday, taking the total for the year to $2.7 billion with the agency.
Floods caused by abnormal monsoon rains and a melting glacier submerged huge swathes of the country earlier this year and killed nearly 1,700 people, the majority of them children and women.
Minister Ayaz Sadiq said the concessionary ADB loan was signed at the rate of 1% for a period of 40 years.
Pakistan is struggling to meet its external financing obligations in the face of low foreign exchange reserves that are barely enough to cover a month of imports. It is also beset by decades-high inflation.