The central government’s total debt has increased by 21.7 per cent to Rs38.7 trillion during the last two years with a major rise in domestic debt.
The data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday showed that during the past couple of years, the government’s domestic and external debts stood at Rs38.69tr at the end of the fiscal FY21 compared to Rs31.78tr in FY19. The debts in FY20 were Rs35.1tr.
The external debt (in terms of rupees) did not show much difference as it rose to Rs12.42tr compared to Rs11.055tr in FY19. However, the government’s external debt did not include loans from the International Monetary Fund and foreign exchange liabilities.
The central government’s domestic debt went up by 26.7pc during the past two years making it more difficult to bear the enlarging size of debt servicing which eats up one third of the annual budget of the country.
