Pakistan third on external debt list in region

Pakistan has been listed as the third country in the region in terms of the highest external debt, after Sri Lanka and Nepal, but is comparatively on the lower side in the list of sovereign states by public debt in 2010. According to the Finance Ministry's publication, 'Debt Policy Statement 2010-11', total public debt as percentage of GDP in fiscal year 2010-11 (June 2010-June 2011) was 60.6 percent.
List of the countries by public debt to GDP ratio, issued by Eurostat and CIA's World Factbook 2010, showed that Pakistan's public debt was 49.9 percent of GDP by the end of calendar year 2010, which stood higher than 39.3 percent in Bangladesh but relatively lower than Sri Lanka which registered 86.7 percent public debt, and India's 55.9 percent.
According to IMF, however, Pakistan's public debt stands at 56.8 percent of GDP and India at 71.8 percent of the GDP. Analysis by external debt showed that Pakistan was the third highest in terms of external debt in the region - after Sri Lanka and Nepal. Sri Lanka's external debt reached 36 percent of GDP, followed by 35 percent in Nepal, and 33 percent of GDP in Pakistan. Total foreign debt of India stood at 15 percent of GDP, and China's external debt was only 7 percent of GDP. The total external debt of Sri Lanka and Nepal stood at $17.970 billion and $4.5 billion.
The external debt of Pakistan reached $57.2 billion, which was 33 percent of GDP by December 2010. The external debt of Bangladesh as on December 2010 stands at $24.4 billion or 23 percent of the GDP. The external debt of India at the end of the last calendar year 2010 was recorded $2.4 trillion or 15 percent of the GDP. China's external debt and liabilities stand at $91 billion or 21 percent of the GDP.
Public debt is the cumulative total of all government borrowings less repayments that are denominated in a country's home currency. Data showed by Euro stat for EU and CIA's World Fact book, explains that the public debt is the most relevant data for discussions of government default and debt ceilings. It is different from external debt, which instead reflects the foreign currency liabilities of both the public and private sector. Total public debt of China as on December 2010, reached 39 percent of GDP according to IMF while it is 33.9 percent according to CIA and Euro stat.