In terms of foreign exchange earning: external debt, debt servicing stand at 1.46 times, 14.8 percent

Pakistan's external debt and debt servicing in terms of foreign exchange earning stood at 1.46 times and 14.8 percent, respectively during 2009-10 as compared to 1.48 times and 13.4 percent, respectively in 2008-09, reveals Pakistan Debt Policy Statement 2010-11.
According to the policy statement, which would be presented in the National Assembly, these indicators are still within the acceptable threshold of 2 times and 20 percent of foreign exchange earning correspondingly. Encouragingly, the growth in non-interest foreign exchange payment was negative 4.9 percent whereas foreign exchanges recorded a healthy growth of 7.9 percent that helped in reducing the current account deficit.
The Debt Policy further reveals that the rising global commodity prices including oil prices, post flood scenario and expected repayment of IMF, SBP facility starting FY2012 may exert pressure on current account in future.
In this regard, the statement suggested the government to take measures to augment the foreign currency flows to mitigate the affects of higher international commodity prices, ie tap international debt capital markets as envisaged in the debt strategy, take measures to fast track projects to release sanctioned project loans of bilateral/ multilateral agencies, further strengthen remittances initiatives and boost exports.