Pakistan gets around $ 800 million as fiscal support: Shaukat
app.com.pk
ISLAMABAD, Oct 20 (APP): Finance Minister, Shaukat Aziz said
Saturday, the country has so far secured commitments in cash Grants worth $ 800 million as fiscal support from various countries including UK, EU, Japan, US and Canada.
Pakistan may have an estimated impact of upto $ 2 billion in
terms of fiscal position, balance of payment and privatization proceeds during the current fiscal, in the wake of situation after September 11 incident, he told a press conference.
The Minister informed that the cash in grants commitments
included around $ 40 million - UK, $ 45 million - EU, $ 25
million - Japan, $ 673 million - USA ( including $ 600 m for budgetary support and $ 73 m for police reforms) and the rest from Canada.
He clarified this amount does not include the amounts announced for Afghan refugee assistance, adding, around $ 700 million have so far been announced, acceding the $ 600 million amount as appealed by the UN Secretary General in this respect.
The Minister said, these $ 700 million will be used by the
UNHCR, who are making local purchase of food items like wheat etc.
Besides, the Finance Minister said, Canada and UK have
converted their bilateral debt of $ 285 million and around $ 38 million, respectively into SWAP (for use in social sector like health, education etc.), giving Pakistan a debt relief.
Regarding the prospects of debt relief from other countries,
Shaukat Aziz said, we are engaged in dialogue with bilateral
creditors, seeking debt relief keeping in view the objectives of addressing problems like fiscal space, social sector development and poverty reduction and, adding, the process is expected to end during the Paris Club meeting by December or January.
Speaking on the country's debt situation, the Finance
Minister told the newsmen that Pakistan owes a total of around $ 37 billion external debt by September 30, 2001 including $ 15.4 billion - multilateral debt (IMF, WB, ADB, IDB etc.) and $ 12.5 billion - bilateral debt.
The bilateral debt of $ 12.5 billion included $ 5.083
billion -Japan, $ 3 billion - USA, $ 1 billion - France, $ 1 billion - Germany, $ 318 million - Canada, $ 175 million - Italy, $ 738 million - Korea, $ 127 million - Sweden, $ 103 million - Russia, $ 88 million - Netherlands and $ 353 million from others.
Out of the $ 12.5 billion bilateral debt, $ 12 billion is
Paris Club related debt and $ 0.5 billion is Non-Paris Club debt, he added.
Besides, the Finance Minister said, short term banking
sector debt amounts to $ 751 million, private sector debt is to the tune of $ 2.1 billion and $ 5 billion are in terms of other external liabilities such as sureties and bonds in lieu of dollars etc. |
