ISLAMABAD: Spokesman of Finance Division Friday said the government had topay back US$ 3.6 billion to foreign creditors against external public debtover the remaining period of current fiscal year (2017-18).
Referring to news reports in a section of media on Friday wherein it isstated that Pakistan had to pay back $6 billion in the next six months, thespokesman clarified that total payments against external public debt duringfiscal year 2017-18 were US$ 6 billion out of which US$ 2.4 billion hadalready been paid.
“Therefore, the government has to pay US$ 3.6 billion over the remainingperiod of current fiscal year,” he clarified.
The spokesman said that external public debt repayment obligations forPakistan were not more than an average of US$ 5 billion per annum until2022.
Keeping in view the track record of the country, this amount of repaymentsshould not raise any concern as Pakistan had successfully met higherrepayment obligations even with much lower volumeof foreign exchange reserves in the past.
Furthermore, external inflows are expected to be sufficient to meetrepayment obligations, the spokesman added.