Pakistan paid over USD 3.5 billion in interest to IMF

Islamabad: Pakistan has paid over USD 3.5 billion in interest on loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the last forty years.

The stunning revelation was made during a meeting of the Senate's Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Senator Saifullah Abro, on Thursday at the Parliament House, where the Ministry of Finance presented details of the loans and repayments made to the IMF so far.

According to The Express Tribune, during the briefing by officials from the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Pakistan, it was disclosed that Pakistan has paid over USD 3.60 billion in interest to the IMF.

The documents presented in the meeting revealed that the interest paid amounts to over Rs 1,000 billion in Pakistani currency.

It also emerged that over the past 30 years, Pakistan has borrowed approximately USD 29 billion from the IMF and has repaid more than USD 21.72 billion in the same period.

In the last four years alone, Pakistan borrowed over USD 6.26 billion from the IMF and repaid USD 4.52 billion. Additionally, in the last four years, Pakistan has paid over USD 1.10 billion in interest to the IMF.

In 2024, Pakistan borrowed USD 1.35 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) from the IMF and repaid USD 646.69 million in SDRs.

SDRs are an international reserve asset created by the IMF. They are used to supplement the official reserves of member countries and can be exchanged among governments for freely usable currencies in times of need. The value of SDRs is based on a basket of major international currencies.

The Ministry of Finance officials also informed the committee that Pakistan borrowed USD 19.55 billion SDRs (USD 25.94b) from the IMF since 1984 and repaid USD 14.71 (USD 19.51b) billion SDRs, with USD 2.44 (USD 3.23b) billion SDRs paid in interest.

The committee chairman said on the occasion that the country was not being destroyed on its own "but we all have a part in its destruction".

The committee later sought details of every programme with the IMF, stating that the committee should be informed about what has happened in each programme, according to the paper The development comes as Pakistan is close to getting another IMF loan of about USD 7 billion, which will be provided in three years.