Pakistan's Debt Distress

Pakistan's debt distress has focused scrutiny on its debt structure, which includes lots of bilateral and official borrowing, much of it from China. The question of how to restructure Chinese lending, in relation to loan by other creditors, will be at the top of the restructuring agenda. Our guest, Reza Baqir, has both been on both sides of the table in debt workouts. He was head of the IMF’s Debt Policy division for a number of years, helping design key sovereign debt policies. He became governor of the State Bank of Pakistan in 2019 as the country faced a balance of payments crisis. He joins us to discuss lessons drawn from these experiences, how the IMF can improve, the role of China in modern debt markets, and how to improve the international debt architecture.

Producer: Leanna Doty