ISLAMABAD – The United States has reportedly once again raised concernsover Chinese debt payment by Pakistan from the IMF seeked dollars.
US is seeking transparency of the Chinese debt on Pakistan, which hasreached out to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for amultibillion-dollar bailout package, the Trump Administration toldlawmakers on Wednesday.
“The IMF team just came back from Pakistan. One of the things we’re pushinghard for is full transparency of the debt,” Under Secretary of Treasury forInternational Affairs David Malpass told lawmakers during a Congressionalhearing.
Malpass was responding to a query on PakistanlinkChinese debt from Senator Jeff Merkley during a hearing of the SenateForeign Relations Subcommittee on Multilateral and InternationalDevelopment, Multilateral Institutions, and International Economic Energyand Environmental Policy.
Senator Merkley, a ranking member of the subcommittee had asked if IMFfunds are essentially being used to repay Chinese debt.
“Pakistan is a good example of a country that has a significant amount ofChinese investment. I think the number I have is USD62 billion. They owe alot of money back to China, Chinese banks, and they’re seeking an IMFbailout. I think it’s a $12 billion bailout. They have asked the US to makesure that we don’t block this,” the Senator from Oregon said
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“Is that IMF money essentially going to help Pakistan repay Chinese banks?Why is that a good economic development strategy?” Merkley asked.
“One of the challenges is they (China) haven’t disclosed the terms of–inmany cases, they haven’t disclosed the terms of that debt. That means theinterest rate, the maturity, and when it would have to be repaid,” he said.
“We think that the maturity of the Chinese debt, comes after the IMF wouldhave been repaid,” Malpass said responding to the question on Pakistan.
