ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: Pakistan has signed three bilateral agreements with Spain, Austria and Turkey for the rescheduling of $200 million debt in line with last year’s decision of Paris Club, a senior government official said here on Monday.

Secretary Economic Affairs Division Dr Waqar Masood Khan told Dawn that dates were now being finalized for rescheduling of debt with Japan ($5.3 billion), Germany ($1 billion) and France ($1 billion).

“Hopefully we will sign these three new agreements by November this year to complete the process of bilateral agreements with donor countries,” he added.

He said an agreement with Canada had been signed for the rescheduling of non-official development assistance (ODA) debt. An agreement for rescheduling of ODA was likely to be signed by next month, he added.

Pakistan is believed to have been told that Japan would reschedule its loans on a reduced mark up rate.

Informed sources said since the Bush administration had indicated that it would write off Pakistan’s $1 billion debt out of total $3.2 billion debt, Japan could also follow suit.

They said there was also a possibility of debt swap by Japan for social sector funding as Britain and Canada had done the same after re-profiling of Pakistan’s $12.5 billion debt by the Paris Club.

Sweden and Norway were also expected to reschedule their $200 million debt within this month.

Out of $12.5 billion debt, the US government has so far rescheduled its $3.2 billion debt for which a formal agreement has been signed between the two sides.

England and Canada have written off about $200 million loans, while a portion of their loans has also been converted into debt swap for poverty alleviation.

In December 2001, Pakistan signed a debt restructuring agreement with the Paris Club. Unlike the two earlier agreements that provided relief only against debt service payments, the new agreement covers the entire stock of debt owed to the Paris Club creditors on the cut-off date of September 1997. Pakistan was granted a repayment period of 38 years with a grace period of 15 years for Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans and 23 years with a grace period of 5 years for non-ODA loans.

The Paris Club also decided to defer for three years all amortisation payments on post cut-off date debts and interest on restructured loans due to be paid between Nov 30, 2001 and June 30, 2002. In addition, 20 per cent of interest payments due in next two years was also deferred.