KARACHI: Pakistan paid $3.593 billion in external debt servicing during the first quarter of this fiscal year, reported the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The debt servicing has become the biggest problem for the government as it has to borrow continuously to pay back the previous debts. In FY20, the country had to pay $14.578bn in debt servicing.

The foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank have remained below $14bn since FY18 and are still hovering around $13bn.

Out of the total payment of $3.593bn, the country paid $2.934bn in the principal amount while $659 million was paid as interest.

In FY20, the principal amount was $11.345bn while the interest was $3.233bn.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2021