ISLAMABAD   -    Pakistan had paid $9.1 billion as external debt repayment and servicing during previous fiscal year (20-18-19).

The government had paid $9.1 billion as external debt repayment and servicing during fiscal year 2018-19 as against $5.1 billion paid in preceding year, said Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar. He further said that volume of debt has slightly increased during the first year of the PTI’s government. Sharing figure, he said that net increase in external public debt stock of Pakistan in fiscal year 2018-19 was $2.5 billion. The volume of external debt enhanced by $8.6 billion in financial year 2017-18. Azhar said that net increase in total external debt and liabilities was $10 billion in FY18-19 as against 13.3 billion in FY 2017018.

Another senior official informed The Nation that Pakistan would not face balance of payment crisis during current fiscal year 2019-20 due to the government’s deals with international financial institutions. The international donors including Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB) had agreed to release additional financing for Pakistan following International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s approval of loan. The IMF had already released around one billion dollars for Pakistan, which helped in stabilizing the country’s foreign exchange reserves.

He further said that IMF would release the second tranche of around one billion dollars during current fiscal year if Pakistan meets the structural benchmarks of the Fund. Similarly, the ADB plans to provide about $2.1 billion out of $3.4 billion funds to support Pakistan’s reform and development programmes during fiscal year 2019-20. The official said that government had decided to issue short term Bonds and Sukuks to raise resources from the international market to build its foreign exchange reserves of the country. He further said that size of the bonds has not decided yet. However, the federal government in annual budget for current fiscal year 2019-20 had projected to generate Rs450 billion (around $2.8 billion) for the Sukuk bonds.

The SBP had already received inflow of $500 million from Qatar as placement of funds. Qatar had committed to place $3 billion in SBP’s account on the request of government of Pakistan. Similarly, the deferred oil payment facility from Saudi Arabia had also started from July 2019. The Saudi Arabia would provide oil worth $3.2 billion on deferred payment facility for one year, which would ease pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves. Saudi Arabia has begun supplying oil on deferred payments to Pakistan as the first vessel carrying Arab Light Crude Oil cargo berthed at Karachi Port on Saturday.