KARACHI, Feb 5: Pakistan’s foreign debt servicing bill has inflated with an accelerated pace during the last six months creating serious problem for the dollar-starved country as it could barely meet the current account gap with the help of IMF.

The country is eagerly looking for more loans to meet its ever-increasing current account deficit but the piling up of loans means larger share of debt servicing as reflected by the data during the last two quarters.

During the last six months the country has already paid bills for debt servicing equal to 77 per cent of what it paid in all four quarters of 2007-08.

The official data shows that the country paid $2.260 billion as debt servicing during the six months against the full year (2007-08) payment of $2.923 billion.

If the payment for liabilities servicing is included the total debt and liabilities services will go further higher to $2.426 billion.

It shows that the country will spend about $5 billion as debt and liabilities servicing during the current fiscal 2008-09.

Analysts feel that the situation is depressing as the country had to accept harsh IMF conditions, which were also a compromise over the economic growth for a total $7.6 billion loan, which will be receivable in 23 months.

Experts and analysts have been raising voices against the IMF loan as the repayment would bring more severe economic penalties for the country. They said that rising debt would force the government to borrow more and then pay more.

There is no sign or any strategy that country could even pay back its entire foreign debt, which will be over $51 billion after the inflow $7.6 billion IMF loan.

The current rise in the debt serving was mainly because of heavy payback to Islamic Development Bank. The loan is a short-term but the official figures do not show the rate of interest on the IDB loan.

The country paid $612 million as debt service to IDB during the last two quarters, while a total payment of $33 million was paid during entire 2007-08.

The pressure on foreign exchange started mounting since October 2007 when oil and other commodity prices went up to record level and the country’s foreign exchange reserves depleted sharply. It also forced the local currency to lose 23 per cent against the dollar during the calendar year 2008.

Pakistan paid heavily for the record high oil prices that siphoned off most of its reserves forcing it to accept IMF conditions to avoid default.

The IMF assessed recently that the country needed $20 billion to come out of the current difficult economic situation.

Pakistan hopes to get aid from Tokyo conference, which the Japanese government will hold to collect international help for the country massively involved in fighting against terrorism.

Pakistan also hopes to get US help for the services it has been providing for the logistics required for American and NATO forces and spending huge money to fight against terrorism in Northern Areas of the country.

The war-like situation in northern part of Pakistan has been chewing a bigger share of defence spending of the country. The government has been asking the international community to provide monetary help to continue with its fight against the militants.