A cash crunch country, Pakistan has secured $800 million of debt freeze deal from 14 members of the G20. Six countries including Japan and Saudi Arabia is yet to give their consent to the deal.
Pak Debt said, “Pakistan has not yet finalized the debt rescheduling modalities with Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and the UK.”
As of August 2020, Pakistan owes $25.4 billion to the rich members of G20 nations. On April 15, the G-20 nations announced a freeze on debt repayments from 76 countries, including Pakistan in May to December 2020 period.
Pakistan and 76 poor African countries have opted for the G-20 debt relief initiative for May-December 2020 period, to combat the grumpy economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The G-20 members are expecting to conclude the deal before the end of December, said an official of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. He said that Pakistan will not make repayments to these six countries, on the understanding that these members would eventually sign-off the deals.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Pakistan was expecting a total of $1.8 billion temporary debt relief from the members of the G-20 nation for May-December 2020 period. It includes a principal amount of $1.47 billion and $323 million interest on the loan.
So far, Pakistani authorities have entered into 27 debt rescheduling agreements with 16 countries.
