MoF working on rupee-denominated, dollar-settled bond: Aurangzeb

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Friday said the Ministry of Finance was working on a rupee-denominated, dollar-settled bond and exploring the possibility of tokenising some existing Eurobond debt, while stressing the need to focus on Pakistan’s stagnant goods exports of around USD 30 billion to sustain economic growth. Addressing the “Mobilising Private Capital: National Strategic Dialogue on PPPs and Privatisation” organised by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the minister said the government was seeking to diversify its borrowing sources and reduce its over-reliance on the domestic banking system. “We have already mandated institutions who are going to work with us on this,” Aurangzeb said, without disclosing the proposed bond’s size, maturity or issuance timeline. He said excessive dependence on banks for government borrowing was not sustainable and stressed the need to deepen Pakistan’s debt capital markets and broaden the investor base. “We really do need to work on debt capital markets to bring a more diversified investor base, whether it’s insurance, NBFIs, to diversify out of the banking system,” he said. Aurangzeb also disclosed that Pakistan was explori