Pakistan's new finance minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday he will seek rescheduling of some $27 billion worth of non-Paris Club debt largely owed to China, but will not pursue haircuts as part of any restructuring.
In an interview, Mr Dar ruled out the possibility of a default on Pakistan's debt, an extension of the maturity date on bonds due in December or a renegotiation of Pakistan's current International Monetary Fund programme.
The veteran finance minister said multilateral development banks and international donors have been "quite flexible" with ways to meet Pakistan's external financing needs estimated at about $32bn after devastating floods.
Some of this may come from reallocating funds from previously approved, slower-disbursing development loans, he said.
Mr Dar, who participated in the IMF and World Bank annual meetings just over two weeks after taking office, said that Pakistan will seek restructuring on equal terms for all bilateral creditors.
He declined to comment when asked whether he thought it would be difficult to persuade China, creditor for about $23bn of the debt, to participate.
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".
Mr Dar, who served as Pakistan's finance minister three previous times — most recently from 2013 to 2017 — is known as a staunch defender of the rupee.
He said Pakistan has not engaged in physical intervention in the currency, which has been battered this year by a strong US dollar, but which has rallied some 10 per cent since his appointment.
Mr Dar said that he views the "true value" of the rupee at a level under 200 to the dollar. It last traded at 219.
"I am for a stable currency, I am for a realistic rate. I am for market-based, but not subject to a currency being taken hostage" and making speculators billions of dollars.
Asked whether he discussed with IMF officials the possibility of borrowing from the fund's new Resilience and Sustainability Trust for middle-income countries, Mr Dar said: "We have discussed all options."
The minister added that the IMF's new emergency "food shock" borrowing window may also be a good fit for the country, which has lost crops due to devastating floods and may need to import up to half-million of tonnes of wheat in the next year.
"In this scenario, we have the possibility to approaching and accessing this facility," he said.
In a separate interview, Mr Dar estimated that it could take “close to three years" for the South Asian country to recover from devastating floods that killed more than 1,700 people and displaced another 7.9 million.
Losses from the floods were estimated to surpass $32bn and that the cost of rebuilding damaged infrastructure will exceed $16bn, he said.
Monsoon rains, likely made worse by climate change, hammered Pakistan for months starting in mid-June, damaging or washing away 2 million homes.
Rebuilding, Mr Dar said, “can’t be done overnight'' and will take “maybe close to three years: though he acknowledged that he was "not an engineer". The World Bank last month pledged $2bn in flood aid.
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T20 World Cup Qualifier
October 18 – November 2
Opening fixtures
Friday, October 18
ICC Academy: 10am, Scotland v Singapore, 2.10pm, Netherlands v Kenya
Zayed Cricket Stadium: 2.10pm, Hong Kong v Ireland, 7.30pm, Oman v UAE
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Rameez Shahzad, Darius D’Silva, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zawar Farid, Ghulam Shabber, Junaid Siddique, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Waheed Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Zahoor Khan
Players out: Mohammed Naveed, Shaiman Anwar, Qadeer Ahmed
Players in: Junaid Siddique, Darius D’Silva, Waheed Ahmed
What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
THE BIG THREE
NOVAK DJOKOVIC
19 grand slam singles titles
Wimbledon: 5 (2011, 14, 15, 18, 19)
French Open: 2 (2016, 21)
US Open: 3 (2011, 15, 18)
Australian Open: 9 (2008, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21)
Prize money: $150m
ROGER FEDERER
20 grand slam singles titles
Wimbledon: 8 (2003, 04, 05, 06, 07, 09, 12, 17)
French Open: 1 (2009)
US Open: 5 (2004, 05, 06, 07, 08)
Australian Open: 6 (2004, 06, 07, 10, 17, 18)
Prize money: $130m
RAFAEL NADAL
20 grand slam singles titles
Wimbledon: 2 (2008, 10)
French Open: 13 (2005, 06, 07, 08, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20)
US Open: 4 (2010, 13, 17, 19)
Australian Open: 1 (2009)
Prize money: $125m
Scores
Day 2
New Zealand 153 & 56-1
Pakistan 227
New Zealand trail by 18 runs with nine wickets remaining
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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