In an interview, Dar ruled out the likelihood of Pakistan’s debt default, a postponement of the December bond maturity date, and renegotiation of the country’s present IMF programme.
The seasoned finance minister said that multilateral development banks and foreign donors had been “very flexible” in finding methods to satisfy Pakistan’s anticipated $32 billion in external funding demands following disastrous floods. He said that some of this may come from repurposing money from development loans that had already been granted but were paying out more slowly.
Just over two weeks after entering office, Dar, who is attending the IMF and World Bank annual meetings, stated that Pakistan will seek restructuring on similar terms for all bilateral creditors.
When asked if he felt it would be difficult to convince China, the creditor for around $23 billion of the debt, to join, he declined to respond.
But asked whether Pakistan would seek to reduce debt principal, he said “rescheduling is fine, but we are not seeking a haircut. That’s not fair.
