Sustaining Trade and the Balance of Payments The rapidly increasing external debt repayment is attributable to changing composition of external debt. In 2005-06, the share of short-term and medium-term debt was 14 percent, which has increased to 35 percent by 2021-22, as shown in Table 15.2. Table 15.2: Composition of Public External Debt ($ billion) 2005-06 2010-11 LONG-TERM DEBT 30.1 45.3 Paris Club 12.8 15.5 Multilateral 16.6 25.8 Other Bilateral* 0.7 2.4 Allocation of SDRs 0.0 1.6 SHORT-AND MEDIUM-TERM DEBT 4.4 11.9 Euro-Sukuk Global Bonds 1.9 1.6 Commercial Loans/Credits 0.1 0.0 Central Bank Deposits 0.7 1.0 SWAP Loans 1.5 8.9 Short-Term Loans 0.2 0.4 TOTAL PUBLIC EXTERNAL DEBT 34.5 57.2 Share of Short-Term and Medium­12.9 20.8 Term Debt *Mostly China Source: SBP 2015-16 45.9 12.7 26.4 5.4 1.4 15.4 4.6 0.9 0.7 6.0 1.7 61.3 25.2 2021-22 65.1 9.2 34.0 18.0 3.9 34.8 8.8 10.5 2.7 6.9 1.3 99.9 34.6 The precarious financial position regarding external payment obligations is aptly highlighted by the worsening in the ratio of foreign exchange reserves at the start of a year to the magnitude of external financing requirements during the year, which is the sum of the current account deficit and net external debt repayment during the year. This was over 150 percent seven years ago. It is now down to the lowest ever level of 36.5 percent, as shown in Table 15.3. Therefore, it is not surprising that Pakistan has been included in the list of 25 countries prone to default in their external payments by the International Sovereign Debt Vulnerability Ranking of Investor Education. Pakistan’s vulnerability is relatively high as indicated by its fourth position in this list. 143