SBP chief says Pakistan not considering bilateral debt restructuring: Reuters

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor Jameel Ahmad said the country is not considering a bilateral debt restructuring, sources that attended an analyst briefing following the monetary policy decision told Reuters.

“As of now there is no plan to enter into any debt restructuring,” the sources cited central bank governor Jameel Ahmad as saying.

“Absolutely no doubt about it. We are not considering any such plan, so there is no question of what will be the haircut,” he added.

In his post-budget press conference, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had said that the government is working on the possibility of restructuring its bilateral debt.

“There is no plan to go to multilateral development institutions, requesting them to reschedule our debt,” he said.

“However, we could negotiate bilateral loans and will talk to our bilateral partners after the budget process is over,” he said.

Dar also ruled out the need to reschedule domestic debt.

“Being a sovereign country, if you cannot meet your own currency requirement of the debt repayment, it is a serious situation.

“Rescheduling domestic debt at present is foolishness, especially at these interest rates. Once the policy rates decline to a reasonable level, then the short-term loans can be converted to the long term,” he said at the press conference on Saturday.