Asad Umar: Ready to share details of CPEC debts with IMF

Asad Umar Pic/AFP

Pakistan is ready to share details of the debt related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with the IMF, Finance Minister Asad Umar has said while rejecting the US' view that China-funded projects were to blame for the cash-strapped country's current economic woes.

Speaking on his return from Indonesia where he requested International Monetary Fund's Managing Director Christine Lagarde for a bailout package for Pakistan, Umar said the decision to approach the global lender was taken after consultations with friendly countries. Pakistan would share "normal debt-related information about CPEC with the IMF", the Express Tribune Sunday quoted the finance minister as saying.

The IMF team, Umar said, was scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on November 7 to negotiate the programme, likely to span over a three-year period. He said Pakistan's current year debt repayments were about USD 9 billion but obviously it would not entirely be available from the IMF.

Lagarde has made it clear that the IMF would require absolute transparency on Pakistan's debts, including those owned by China under the USD 50 billion-CPEC. The IMF, Umar said, had asked for details of loans, including ones secured in relation to the CPEC projects, for analysing the debt sustainability.

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