Foreign debts amounted to $35.846 billion in March

Pakistan's total external debt and foreign exchange liabilities amounted $35.846 billion up to March 2004, showing an increase of about one percent over the level of $35.474 billion recorded at end-June 2003, says the Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2003-04.
The Survey document says that the official reserves amounted to $11.001 billion which, by definition (minus overall debt and liabilities), make net debt and liabilities of $24.845 billion as on March 2004.
The net external debt and liabilities declined from 50.4 percent of the GDP end June 2000 to 31.5 percent end-June 2003 and further to 26.2 percent by end of this fiscal.
The external debt and liabilities as percentage of foreign exchange earnings was 297.3 percent in 1999-2000 which declined to 181.1 percent in 2002-03 and further to 168.7 percent by end March in the outgoing fiscal year.
Total stock of medium and long term debts, largely covering Paris Club countries, and multilateral debt increased by $1087 million whereas the stock of other debts witnessed a decline of $715 million.
The public and publicly guaranteed debt as on March 2004 was $30.185 billion against $29.232 billion in 2003; private non-guaranteed debt was 1.731 billion as compared to $2.028 billion; IMF $1.912 billion this year in contrast to $2.092 billion of last year; Foreign Exchange Liabilities $2.018 billion this year against $2.122 billion of last year.
The continuous build-up in foreign exchange reserves helped Pakistan retire its expensive debt. In 1999-2000, Pakistan paid $3.756 billion on account of debt servicing and $4.081 billion worth payments were rolled over.
With the gradual improvement in external liquidity position leading to build-up in foreign exchange reserves the actual paid amount continued to rise while the rolled-over amount continued to decline. By 2001-02, the actual paid amount on debt servicing reached as high as $6.327 billion and the rolled over amount declined to $2.243 billion.
In 2002-03, the amount paid on account of debt servicing declined to $4.349 billion and the rolled over amount shrank to $1.908 billion. This trend persisted and during the current fiscal year both actual paid amount as well as rolled over amount further declined to $4.059 billion and $1.100 billion respectively.