COVID-19: UK to provide £2.67 mn to Pakistan, announces British HC

ISLAMABAD: British High Commissioner to Pakistan Christian Turner on Saturday said that the United Kingdom (UK) would provide pound sterling (£)2.67 million to Pakistan to tackle COVID-19 pandemic, ARY NEWS reported.

“People are getting affected from the virus globally,” he said in a Urdu-language video message shared from his Twitter account and added that it was friends that support each other at testing times.

New 🇬🇧support for 🇵🇰 response to #Covid_19 – mushkil waqt mein dost hi hamara saath dehte hain pic.twitter.com/eB4R5skD4B

— Christian Turner (@CTurnerFCO) April 18, 2020

Christian Turner said that ways of living and dealing the situation are changing across the world due to the pandemic.

He, however, hoped that the country has the ability to cope up with the losses incurred due to the virus and emerge strong from the ongoing situation.

Yesterday, in a move to fight the COVID-19, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a $1.386 billion funding for Pakistan.

According to the declaration, the IMF approved the disbursement of $1.386 billion under the Rapid Financing Instrument in a meeting of its executive board members in Washington DC.

Following the Executive Board discussion, Mr. Geoffrey Okamoto, First Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, said in his statement that the outbreak of coronavirus is having a significant impact on the Pakistani economy.

The domestic containment measures, coupled with the global downturn, are severely affecting growth and straining external financing. This has created an urgent balance of payments need.

“In this context of heightened uncertainty, IMF emergency financing under the Rapid Financing Instrument provides strong support to the authorities’ emergency policy response, preserving fiscal space for essential health spending, shoring up confidence, and catalyzing additional donor support.”