| | Pakistan
seeks economic package, re-profiling of debt from US
25th
October, 2001.
Pakistan has sought a 10-point multi-dimensional economic package from the US,
including re-profiling of a 12 billion-Dollar bilateral debt repayment.
The package seeking immediate extensive debt relief was submitted during the recent
visit of US Undersecretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Alan P Larson.
Pakistan, which has a 37-billion-dollar foreign debt, has been promised
800 million dollars in aid by the US and its allies after the country pledged
to back the America-led fight against terrorism.
The bailout package
prepared by Pakistan calls for larger financial allocations and re-profiling of
12 billion-Dollar bilateral debt in order to bring it to a sustainable level so
that it could be serviced easily, an official newspaper reported on Wednesday.
It also seeks enhancing the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility, under
which it hopes to get 1.5 billion Dollars from the Paris Club. The amount could
go up further if the US agreed to increase the PRGF quota limit from the present
90 per cent to 130 per cent.
The US official held talks with Pakistan's
Commerce and Finance Ministers during which they discussed ways to evolve a long
term strategy to service Pakistan's domestic and foreign debt, which is 103 per
cent of the GDP.
Larson said Washington would tailor an economic programme
to provide meaningful debt relief to Pakistan.
But skeptics within the
Musharraf regime has cautioned against generating too much hype about the US assistance,
which may not cross more than a billion Dollars. |
