ISLAMABAD: Domestic debt of Pakistan rose 71 percent and external debt posted 29 percent increase during financial year 2016-17, according to Debt Policy Statement 2017-18 submitted to the National Assembly on Monday.
As per the policy statement, public debt touched Rs21,407 billion whilst total government debt was recorded at Rs19,634 billion by end of June 2017, reported an English daily.
Public debt recorded rise of Rs1,729 billion during FY 2016-17, which was considerably lesser than the Rs2,297 billion increases posted during FY 2015-16, despite the higher fiscal deficit in last financial year.
Still, the government said it was in line with budget deficit financing as it financed 71 percent of its budget via domestic and 29 percent was financed via external sources.
According to Debt Policy Statement 2017-18, public debt stood at Rs22,059 billion whereas total government debt was recorded at Rs20,193 billion by end of September 2017.
Gross public debt exhibited a rise of Rs652 billion during first quarter of FY 2017-18. Domestic debt constituted Rs521 billion of this debt increase, whereas government borrowing from domestic sources for financing fiscal deficit was Rs433 billion.
External debt experienced a rise of Rs131 billion mainly attributed to translational losses because of international currency’s appreciation against the US dollar and the depreciation of PKR against the US dollar.
External public debt in US dollar terms rose by $0.9 billion during first quarter of FY 2017-18 and touched $63.4 billion at end of September 2017.
The government raised over $1.5 billion during first quarter of 2017-18 from multilateral sources ($642 million), commercial loans ($472 million), bilateral sources $354 million.
Govt repaid $1.35 billion during the first quarter of FY 2017-18. As per the policy statement, External Debt and Liabilities (EDL) stock was recorded at $83 billion, from which $62.5 billion was external debt.
EDL rose by $9 billion, from which $4.8 billion was contributed by external debt in FY 2016-17. External debt servicing increased by 48 percent during FY 2016-17, touching $6.44 billion compared to $4.34 billion in FY 2015-16.
