Referring to news reports in a section of media on Friday wherein it is stated that Pakistan has to pay back $6 billion to foreign creditors in the next six months, the spokesman of the Finance Division clarified that total payments against external public debt during fiscal year 2017-18 were US$ 6 billion out of which US$ 2.4 billion have already been paid. Therefore, the government has to pay US$ 3.6 billion over the remaining period of current fiscal year.

The spokesman said that external public debt repayment obligations for Pakistan are not more than an average of US$ 5 billion per annum until 2022. Keeping in view the track record of the country, this amount of repayments should not raise any concern as Pakistan has successfully met higher repayment obligations even with much lower volume of foreign exchange reserves in the past. Furthermore, external inflows are expected to be sufficient to meet repayment obligations, the spokesman added.

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