New Delhi: After reports surfaced of Pakistan battling huge debt, now a World Bank report has confirmed that it is in the list of top 10 countries with the largest foreign debt.
The report said that Pakistan is among the top 10 countries that have the largest external debt stock and became eligible for the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) after the COVID-19 pandemic, mentioned ANI.
Quoting International Debt Statistics for 2022 released by the World Bank on Monday, The News International reported that there was a wide variation in the rate of external debt accumulating in individual DSSI-eligible countries, including the group’s largest borrowers.
The combined foreign debt stock of the 10 largest DSSI-eligible borrowers (Angola, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Zambia) stood at $509 billion at the end of 2020, up 12 percent from the previous year. Comparable figure at the end of 2019 and equal to 59 percent of the combined foreign debt obligations of all DSSI-eligible countries.
They accounted for 65 percent of the end-2020 private unguaranteed external debt of DSSI-eligible countries. The rate at which debt accumulated varied greatly in different countries.
The World Bank report said that for Pakistan, an 8 per cent increase in foreign debt shares reflects an influx of budgetary support from official bilateral and multilateral creditors and rollovers and new credit lines from commercial banks, The News International reported.
Net inflows from other private creditors rose 15 percent to $14 billion in 2020, but were highly concentrated and also reflected the rollover by commercial bank loans to Pakistan and the expansion of new credit in the context of the IMF programme.
FDI inflows into Pakistan fell marginally to $1.9 billion, down 5 per cent from 2019 levels, cushioned by continued investments in power generation and telecommunications from British and Chinese investors.
Pakistani PM chairs meeting with Chinese investors
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that his country needs investment, especially from China, to accelerate industrialization and provide jobs to its growing population.
Presiding over a meeting on facilitation of Chinese investors in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) being set up under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Khan directed the concerned authorities to take up land and land to attract more Chinese investors. He also directed to provide tax incentives.
Pakistan needs investment to accelerate industrialization. Khan said that it is important to create maximum employment opportunities for our growing population, of which 65 per cent are below 35 years of age.
Earlier, News International, citing government data in the month of July, reported that Pakistan is on the verge of a debt crisis as the public debt also grew by over eight per cent in the 11 months of the fiscal year ended June. The increase in public debt resulted from an increase in government borrowing to meet spending requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic,
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