Pak signs $475 mln flood loan deal with ADB

Pakistan has signed a $475 million loan agreement for flood relief with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the country’s economic affairs minister said on Thursday. “This concessionary loan, at 1% for a period of 40 years, was signed today,” Ayaz Sadiq said. The floods, caused by abnormal monsoon rains and glacial melt, submerged huge swathes of the country earlier this year and killed nearly 1,700 people, the majority of them children and women.