Daily Times
April 11, 2021
Pakistan is on the verge of receiving around $1 billion debt relief under the G20 plan. A much-needed good news for Economic Affairs Minister Khusro Bakhtyar. This loan suspension will, undoubtedly, provide fiscal space to our economy so that Islamabad can focus on the already-hardening battle against COVID. While indicators of a severe debt crisis were present in Pakistan long before the pandemic, being forced to completely shutter down has taken a great toll on its finances. With the third wave knocking on our doorstep with full force, we need all the help we can get.
It is for this reason alone that PM Khan is repeatedly making a case for debt relief for stressed countries. His call for suspension of debt payments until well after the pandemic if not debt cancellation was echoed by Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. As Khan is taking his bedridden economy to important UN gatherings, Ahmed wrote in The New York Times, “if the world is to survive t