Pakistan says $3bn Eurobond and $3bn Saudi rollover leave external accounts comfortable after US declines $10bn request
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told a Senate committee that Pakistan raised $3 billion through a Eurobond and secured a $3 billion rollover from Saudi Arabia, leaving its external accounts comfortable even after Washington declined to entertain a $10 billion support request.
Pakistan's external accounts are in a comfortable position despite the United States declining to entertain a $10 billion support request, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told a Senate committee in Islamabad on Wednesday, pointing to a $3 billion Eurobond raised earlier this year and a $3 billion rollover from Saudi Arabia.
Aurangzeb was speaking after a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla at Parliament House, where the government presented its Annual Borrowing Plan. Asked about Washington's refusal, he was blunt: with or without $10 billion from the United States, Pakistan was comfortable on its external accounts.
The minister clarified what the American request had actually been. It was neither a credit line nor guaranteed financing, he said, but a request for a Liquidity Support Programme. That distinction matters, because it means the refusal did not remove a promised loan from Pakistan's financing plan; it closed off a facility that had never been agreed.
Against that background, Aurangzeb set out the two pillars of the government's case. First, Pakistan raised $3 billion after returning to the international capital market in the first week of September, an issuance that attracted an order book of about $6 billion, according to reporting of the committee session. Second, Saudi Arabia has rolled over its $3 billion deposit for Pakistan, although the minister declined to disclose the exact duration, describing it only as an appropriate period.
The Eurobond's terms were deliberately chosen, Aurangzeb said. Its repayment period was fixed at 5.5 years so that the repayment obligation would not create difficulties for the next administration. That is a recognition of a long-running problem in Pakistan's debt management: short, bunched maturities that return as a crisis just as a new government takes office.
Federal Secretary Finance Imdad Ullah Bosal gave the committee the scale of what still has to be repaid. Pakistan's gross external financing repayments stand at $21.5 billion, including $17 billion in principal and $4 billion in interest payments. Sources cited in the committee coverage put the remaining SAFE deposits at $4 billion from China, $3 billion from Saudi Arabia and $300 million from Kuwait.
The borrowing plan itself is large. The minister briefed the committee on projected public debt of Rs86.7 trillion, additional borrowing of Rs6.86 trillion and gross financing requirements of Rs28.65 trillion. At the same time, he noted that public debt had declined from 75.1 per cent of GDP in the 2022-23 fiscal year to 68.6 per cent in 2025-26, a trend the government presents as evidence of stabilisation turning into consolidation.
Looking ahead, Aurangzeb said the government plans further Eurobond issuances in five-year and 10-year tranches, alongside Panda bonds and dollar-settled bonds, as part of a broader effort to diversify financing sources and lengthen maturities. The aim, he told the committee, is to replace costly short-term borrowing with longer-term financing, including international bond issuances and private placements, in order to minimise refinancing risks.
He also gave the committee a path for debt servicing: the government is working to bring external debt servicing down to $3.5 billion in the next fiscal year, compared with an estimated $4 billion in the current fiscal year and $4.5 billion in the previous year. In the same session, he said the government had retired, repurchased or exchanged debt worth approximately Rs5.9 trillion, including Rs3.6 trillion in State Bank debt and Rs2.3 trillion in market debt.
The committee was also told that the International Monetary Fund's Executive Board is expected to review Pakistan's $7 billion programme in December, although a date has not been confirmed. That review remains the next major checkpoint: the Eurobond and the Saudi rollover buy breathing space, but the IMF programme is what anchors the medium-term financing framework. Whether the comfort Aurangzeb described holds will depend on reserves, exports and the next round of maturities, not on a single committee briefing.
Figures in this post, including the $3 billion Eurobond, the $3 billion Saudi rollover and the $21.5 billion in gross external financing repayments, were checked at 07:51 PKT on 05 November 2026 against reporting by Business Recorder, The News and The Nation on 5 November 2026.
This post is market news information only, not financial advice.
More in Business & Finance
Photo: A reservoir lake in Pakistan (file image)
Business & FinancePakistan’s ECC clears about Rs380bn in supplementary grants, led by Rs275bn for water projects
The Economic Coordination Committee, chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, has approved supplementary grants worth about Rs380 billion, including Rs275 billion for major water projects and about Rs84 billion for the armed forces, alongside gas supply for two fertiliser plants until the end of December.
Photo: A David Jones store on Castlereagh Street, Sydney (file image)
Business & FinanceAustralia's David Jones collapses into administration after 188 years as landlord talks fail
The 188-year-old Australian department store chain has entered voluntary administration, with McGrathNicol appointed as administrators and FTI Consulting as receivers, after talks with its biggest landlord broke down and rent went unpaid since September.
Photo: Pakistan plans $7 billion sovereign wealth fund, finance minister tells Senate committee
Business & FinancePakistan plans $7 billion sovereign wealth fund, finance minister tells Senate committee
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has told a Senate committee that Pakistan plans a $7 billion sovereign wealth fund built around major state-owned companies, as amendments to the fund's governing law come under parliamentary scrutiny.