Repayments continue to pose serious challenge

The nation’s battle with debt repayment has intensified amid a drop in the State Bank’s foreign exchange reserves and rising political uncertainty, currency experts said. The SBP reported on Thursday that its foreign exchange reserves fell by $44 million during the week ending Feb 16 due to debt servicing, highlighting the ongoing financial strain. Despite an uptick in remittances in December and January, the challenge of debt repayment looms large, with the country requiring over $6 billion for foreign payments by the end of the fiscal year. In the first half of the current fiscal year, the country dedicated $7.2bn to debt servicing, split between a $4.5bn principal amount and $2.7bn in interest.