World Bank ranks Pakistan in top 10 nations with external debt stocks
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Pakistan has been ranked among the top 10 nations with the largest external debt stocks by World Bank. The report also says that Pakistan became eligible for the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) in the aftermath of the pandemic.
The 8% increase in external debt stocks reflected the inflow of budgetary support from official bilateral and multilateral creditors and new credit lines from commercial banks, reported The News International.
Net inflows from other private creditors rose 15 per cent in 2020 to 14 billion dollars. It reflected rollovers and extension of new credits by commercial bank loans to Pakistan. It is cushioned by continued investment in power generation and the telecom sector from British and Chinese investors.
The combined external debt stock of the ten largest borrowers is 509 billion at the end of 2020. It is 12% higher than the comparable figure at the end of 2019. It is also equivalent to 59% of the external debt obligations of all DSSI-eligible countries combined, reported ANI.
The rate at which debt accumulated in each country varied considerably.
Ten of the largest Debt Service Suspension Initiative-eligible borrowers are Angola, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mongolia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Zambia. They account for 65% of the end-2020 private non-guaranteed external debt.
