Pakistan would make the final principal and interest payment on foreign currency bonds that were rescheduled in 1999 on Monday, said Syed Wasimuddin, spokesman for the central bank.
The central bank will pay $155.5 million in principal and $7.7 million as a coupon payment on its foreign currency bonds today, the spokesman said on telephone.
The payments are a part of $610 million of outstanding foreign-currency bonds maturing this month. Three foreign currency bonds were converted into a single bond in 1999 as part of a Paris Club rescheduling plan: A $300 million euro bond; $150 million of Pakistan floating-rate notes; and $160 million of Pakistan Telecommunications Company''s exchangeable bonds. The Paris Club is a group of creditor nations, including the US and Japan.
Pakistan rescheduled the debt payments after its foreign currency reserves fell to less than $1 billion, or one month of imports, in 1999. The country''s foreign currency reserves fell $101 million to $11.314 billion for the week ended December 3.
In the national budget for the financial year to June, Pakistan proposed to raise $500 million from the sale of foreign currency denominated bonds. The sale would be the third offering of foreign currency bonds since February 2004.
Pakistan sold Islamic bonds worth $600 million this year to fund infrastructure projects after raising $500 million last year.
Analysts were of the views the timely payments of principal amount and coupon payments send a strong positive signal to the overseas investors, the country''s ability to pay and sound economic position. They said that upcoming issues planned by the government to tap the European, the US and Middle Eastern markets would likely to receive overwhelming response and good interest rates.
"Though Pakistan didn''t need funds as the revenue and exports are showing steady growth, the main objective is to remain at the international market and investors should feel the country''s presence in the debt market", analysts added.
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