Pakistan's central bank has received USD 1.2 bn from the IMF as the first installment of a USD 3 bn program that seeks to haul the economy from the brink of a debt default, Reuters reports, citing a televised statement made by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday. The installment arrived a day after the global multilateral lender board greenlit the package.

Another USD 5.6 bn worth of funding unlocked: The loan is set to help the country unlock USD 5.6 bn in additional financing, the IMF’s mission chief for Pakistan Nathan Porter said in an emailed response to Bloomberg. Some USD 3 bn was paid out by the UAE and Saudi Arabia last week, and another USD 700 mn has been committed by bilateral partners including the two countries. Meanwhile, multilateral banks — including the World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) — are expected to provide more financing in the coming weeks and months, Bilal Kayani, an economic adviser to the prime minister, said in a tweet.

Gulf countries are increasingly looking east: Oil-rich Gulf countries are looking to China to shore up their economies as they grow increasingly anxious about the future of their longstanding partnership with the US, Bloomberg reports.

In numbers: Gulf companies’ acquisitions and investments in China have surged more than 1000% y-o-y to reach USD 5.3 bn, according to data compiled by the news information service.

A case in point: Gulf sovereign wealth funds, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund could become cornerstone investors in an upcoming USD 9 bn Shanghai IPO of Syngenta Group, a Chinese-owned seed company. Another Abu DHabi wealth fund, Mubadala, is also deepening investment ties with China while the number of Chinese companies setting up in Dubai has increased 24%.

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