Pakistan’s external debt increased 11.4pc YoY: SBP

KARACHI: Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities have increased by $13 billion or 11.4 per cent during the last one year, according to the statistics released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

As per details, the outstanding debt and liabilities of the country stood at $127 billion by September 2021, compared with $114 billion over the same period of the last year. The external public debt of the country increased $10.76 billion to $99.6 billion by the end of September 2021, compared with $88.9 billion a year ago.

Of the total public external debt, the government’s external debt increased to $80.95 billion, compared with $72.30 billion. The outstanding external debt from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reduced to $7.07 billion as against $7.6 billion.

The outstanding external debt under the head of foreign exchange liabilities increased to $11.64 billion by September 2021, compared with $9.03 billion a year ago. Similarly, the external debt of public sector enterprises rose to $6.68 billion, compared with $5.13 billion. Foreign borrowing from the banks also registered an increase to $5.37 billion, compared with $4.41 billion.

The private sector foreign borrowing; however, slightly reduced to $11.09 billion by September 2021 as against $11.32 billion in the same period of the last year.

The SBP data also showed that the ratio of debt and liabilities to the GDP increased to 40.2 per cent by September 2021 as against 39.6 per cent a year ago. Similarly, the public external debt-to-GDP ratio also increased to 31.6 per cent, compared with 30.9 per cent a year ago.

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