Pakistan faces USD 21.5 billion in external debt servicing during fiscal year 2026-27, about USD 5 billion less than the previous fiscal year, but only around USD 7 billion is expected to represent an actual repayment burden after accounting for expected rollovers and refinancing, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Jameel Ahmad said Thursday.
Speaking to reporters at an informal media briefing, Ahmad said Pakistan had already made USD 2.2 billion in external debt payments in July, including USD 1.4 billion to repay Chinese commercial loans and USD 800 million toward other external liabilities.
He said Pakistan’s total external debt servicing requirement for FY27 stands at USD 21.5 billion, including about USD 3.5 billion in interest payments, down from USD 26.5 billion in the previous fiscal year.
However, Ahmad said around USD 12 billion of the amount relates to external deposits that are expected to be rolled over, while about USD 3 billion in commercial loans is likely to be refinanced.
“As a result, the actual external repayment requirement is around USD 7 billion, meaning repayment pressure from August 2026 through June 2027 will remain relatively low,” Ahmad said.
He said Saudi Arabia has already extended the rollover of its deposits with Pakistan until 2028.
The SBP governor said the central bank currently holds USD 12 billion in external deposits, comprising USD 8 billion from Saudi Arabia and USD 4 billion from China. The deposits are due for rollover in December 2026 and March 2027, respectively, and the government expects the countries to extend their maturities.
Ahmad confirmed that Pakistan fully repaid a USD 1.4 billion Chinese commercial loan in July, although the refinancing has not yet been completed.
“We expect Chinese banks to refinance the loan within the next few weeks,” he said.
He also said Pakistan still owes USD 250 million to Kuwait under a loan that has been rolled over since the 1990s.
Ahmad attributed the decline in debt servicing costs to several factors, including lower global interest rates.
On foreign exchange reserves, Ahmad said the SBP had purchased a cumulative USD 28 billion from the interbank market over the past three years, including about USD 9 billion during fiscal year 2025-26, to strengthen the country’s external buffers against future economic shocks.
Those purchases helped strengthen Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves, he said.
By mid-July 2026, Pakistan’s total foreign exchange reserves stood at USD 22.6 billion, including USD 17.2 billion held by the SBP and USD 5.4 billion held by commercial banks.
The governor said SBP reserves had reached USD 18.4 billion at the beginning of July before declining following repayment of the Chinese commercial loan and other external obligations.
Asked about reports that Pakistan had sought a USD 10 billion balance-of-payments support package from the United States, Ahmad declined to comment.
Responding to a question about potentially higher external debt repayments in fiscal year 2027-28 under the IMF program, he said the matter would be assessed at the appropriate time.
Ahmad said Pakistan remains confident it can meet its external debt obligations during the current fiscal year and that the central bank will continue building foreign exchange reserves to strengthen resilience against external shocks, including volatility in global oil prices.
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