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Pakistan Eyes 'Mega Undertaking' Amid Economic Downfall
[Khaama(Afghanistan)] Pakistain is seeking billions of dollars in loans for ’mega undertakings’ after a record-breaking monsoonal rainfall led a large part of the country to flood through the residentials and farmlands.

Pakistain estimated the total losses from flood could be as high as $40 billion — $10 billion, according to sources, a figure more than the government’s initial estimate.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Islamabad was not trying to reschedule its external debt, worth about $130bn, but it did need "huge sums of money" for "mega undertakings", according to the Financial Times.

"We are not asking for any kind of measure [such as] a rescheduling or a moratorium," Sharif told the Financial Times. "We are asking for additional funds."

Mega undertakings will include rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure damaged or washed away in a deluge scientists have linked to climate change.

"There is a gap — and a very serious gap — which is widening by the day between our demands and what we have received," Sharif said at his home in Lahore’s upscale Model Town neighborhood.
Posted by: Fred 2022-10-20
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=647210