Pakistan is expecting to receive much-needed $700 million from United States under the head of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) for its fight against militants by January 10 that would help the financial beleaguered government to bridge the budget deficit and to build the depleting foreign exchange reserves of the country at some extent.

“Pakistan is likely to receive $700 million from United States under the head of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) by January 10 2013 that will put positive impact on the country’s economic situation”, said Rana Assad Amin, Spokesperson and Adviser to the Finance Division while talking to TheNation on Thursday.

He further said that government would able to keep budget deficit at 3 per cent of the GDP by the end of first half (July-December) of the ongoing financial year 2012-13, as expected inflow of $700 million under CSF would help in reducing the budget deficit by 0.4 per cent of the GDP, he added. The government has target to keep budget deficit at 4.7 per cent of the GDP during the ongoing financial year 2012-13, which is a challenging target.

Rana Assad Amin noted that country’s foreign exchange reserves would go beyond $14 billion from existing $ 13.4 billion after receiving $700 million from United States by January 2013. Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are sharply depleting due to heavy repayment to International Monetary Fund (IMF), as it has repaid $2.4 to $2.5 billion to the Fund since February 2012.

Similarly, Rana further said that the expected inflow of CSF would likely to bring some respite for the Pakistani rupee, which is fast eroding its value against the US dollar.  The government of Pakistan had claimed reimbursement of $2.5 billion from United States against the expenses of ongoing military operations in which Islamabad already received $1.12 billion in July 2012 and expecting to receive $700 million by January 2013.

It might be mentioned here that Pakistan was earlier expecting to receive $700 million from US under CSF in March and April 2013 but Islamabad might get it two months earlier i.e. January 2013 due to efforts of Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh who visited Washington last month.