A study in privatization

TODAY'S story has very little to do with the Philippines — and for that, you probably should be thankful — but it is an interesting story and provides some insights into how sovereign finance works at the highest levels.

Pakistan has a huge public debt, something in the neighborhood of $240 billion in total, or roughly 75 percent of its GDP, which is one of the worst debt-to-GDP ratios in the world. A little more than half of that, or about $131 billion, is external debt. Of that, the biggest part, about $69 billion, is owed to China; a bit less than $39 billion is owed to multilaterals, about two-thirds of that being to the World Bank; about $7.5 billion is owed to the Paris Club countries collectively; about $7.6 billion is owed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF); and the remaining $7.8 billion is accounted for by various bonds.