UAE to loan $1 billion, roll over another $2 billion to Pakistan

(Reuters) -The United Arab Emirates on Thursday agreed to lend $1 billion to Pakistan and roll over an existing $2 billion loan already in central bank reserves of the South Asian nation, Pakistan's information minister said.

Pakistan's prime minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in the UAE earlier Thursday on a two day visit.

Sharif met the UAE's president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan before the announcement came, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said in a statement.

Sharif is also scheduled to meet other UAE officials and business leaders to seek business and economic opportunities.

As a ninth IMF review to clear the release of the next $1.1 billion tranche of funds to Pakistan has been pending since September, the external financing is critical for the country's broken economy.

Pakistan faces a severe economic crisis with its central bank foreign reserves falling to a critical level of below $5 billion, which is barely enough for three months of imports.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad, writing by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Krishna N. Das and Toby Chopra)