Pakistan debts have nothing to do with China: Reports
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ISLAMABAD - Miftah Ismail, Pakistan’s finance minister in the previous government until late May, said the Chinese debt repayments were nowhere near as big as Western nations imagine.
He told Reuters that ministry of finance calculations showed that for the next five years, Pakistan’s total annual debt repayments and profit expatriation by Chinese companies would be below $1 billion.
“All of those things combined will not go to $1 billion up until 2023,” he said.
Ismail added loans given by China to Pakistan had a 30-year length and a five-year grace period, meaning there were no repayments for the first five years.
The lending was a combination of zero-interest debt, concessionary and some market rate loans, Ismail said, adding that the “weighted average” interest rate for these loans was 2 percent
“These are not loans that will break our back,” he said.
Ismail said the problems hitting Pakistan’s economy were not linked to debt but rather to current account problems, which was not China’s fault.
Pakistan’s finance ministry said it was engaged in “technical discussions” with the IMF but the interim caretaker government did not have a mandate to decide on any IMF package, which will be down to the new administration.
