$27bn re-profiling needed to secure IMF bailout
Pakistan has sought the re-profiling of more than $27 billion in debt and liabilities with friendly nations — China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — to secure a 37-month IMF bailout package and ease energy sector foreign exchange outflows and consumer tariffs. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Sunday said Islamabad had already asked the friendly bilateral trio of lenders to roll over its more than $12bn annual debt portfolio by three to five years to secure the IMF board’s approval for a $7bn economic bailout by next month. This is on top of Islamabad’s request to Beijing to convert imported coal-based projects to local coal and re-profile more than $15bn in energy sector liabilities to create fiscal space amid difficulties in timely repayments. Pakistan has a peculiar financial arrangement with these three countries in the shape of commercial loans and SAFE deposits that are rolled over every year and form major part of the IMF programme in terms of external financing needs.