Islamabad: The Finance Ministry on Friday apprised the National Assembly that the country’s foreign debt and liabilities were recorded at Rs6.11t ($58b).
The documents shared with the NA disclosed that till end of December 2016, country’s domestic debt was recorded at Rs12.31t ($117b). The total figure which includes external and domestic debt now stands at Rs18.44t, and an average Pakistani now owes Rs94,980 in debt.
The documents also revealed that the government had obtained Rs819.1b worth of loans from commercial banks for the period of July 2016 till end of March 2017. Rs 734.62b of it was obtained from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
For the period of 2017-2023, the country is required to pay $38.224b for external public debt and Rs15.883t for public debt which is inclusive of interest and principal amount.
As per details of external debt shared, Pakistan will need to pay $7,342m which includes an interest of $1,595m in 2017; $4,263m includes $1,457 interest for 2018; $7,070m including interest of $1,314m in 2019.
For 2020, payment of $4,571m includes interest of $1,089m; $5,793m includes interest of $987m for 2021; $4,604m including interest of $830m in 2022 and $4,491m which includes interest of $729m in 2023.
During the tenure of the current government, $35b of new loans have been obtained for making payments of maturing debt and to maintain adequate level of foreign exchange reserves to give a picture of macro-economic stability to investors.
Almost 50pc or $17b of loans obtained by the present government have been used to retire off previous debt as per data shared by the Finance Ministry.
