Pakistan`s $2.41bn debt payments to be rescheduled.

KARACHI -- Pakistan will reschedule $2.41 billion worth of debt repayments in 2020 under the Debt Service SuspensionInitiative(DSSI).

The initiative will help the country `enable an effecdve crisis response.

Borrowers therefore commit to use freed-up resources to increase social, health, or economic spending in response to the [Covid-19] crisis,` the World Bank said in a statement accompanying the release of the country specinc data on the rescheduling.

Pakistan is the second largest benenciary of the initiative following Angola.

According to the World Bank figures, the country`s total debt servicing due in 2020 is $8.974bn, of which official multilateral stands at $3.4bn, official bilateral $4.32bn, non-official $850 million and $362.5m is to bondholders.

The $2.41bn rescheduling will decrease the country`s debt service payments to $6.53bn during the year, translating into savings of 0.9 per cent of the GDP.

The DSSI, however, does not cancel these payments but only postpones them to a later date. The suspensionperiod will begin from May 1 and will last until end2020.

The suspension of payments will be NPV neutral, repayment period will be three years with a one-year grace period and be achieved either through rescheduling or refinancing.

Pakistan has welcomed the...