Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar chaired a meeting here to review issues related to public debt management. Meeting was attended by the Secretary Finance, Secretary EAD, Governor State Bank of Pakistan, DG Debt and other senior officials of SBP and Ministry of Finance.
DG, Debt presented an overview of the evolution of public debt stock over the years. The presentation included the composition of existing debt portfolio, the currency mix, maturity profile and the mechanism and arrangements for debt servicing.
It was highlighted that the maturity profile of the domestic debt has been lengthened during the last two years. It was also observed that most of the external loans contracted and disbursed since June 2013 are on concessional terms. Furthermore, the cost and risks indicators of public debt portfolio have also improved during the last two fiscal years. Debt to GDP has been on a declining trajectory for the last two years. DPCO had carried out detailed working on periodic reconciliation of domestic and external debt statistics. It was further clarified that the External debt numbers being quoted by certain quarters were incorrect as they do not reflect the standard definitions accepted by multilateral financial institutions.
The Finance Minister emphasized that the misunderstanding about public debt numbers should be removed and necessary information should be disseminated for the purpose. He directed the DPCO to carry out further in-depth analysis on different aspects of debt portfolio in order to have a proactive debt management strategy that should cater to the various risks faced by the government with regard to refinancing and lengthening of the debt portfolio to arrive at optimal cost risk trade off.
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