ISLAMABAD: The Federal government’s total debt surged by Rs 3.126 trillion to Rs 63.966 trillion between Jul-Aug, of the current fiscal.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) monthly public debt report, the central government domestic debt has increased by Rs 982 billion from Rs 38.809 trillion to Rs 39.792 trillion during the first two months of the current fiscal year.
Out of total domestic debt, long term debt increased to Rs 30.013 trillion from Rs 29.588 trillion, whereas the short term debt increased to Rs 9.633 trillion from Rs 9.335 trillion during the same time period.
According to a report, the government raised Rs 564 billion and Rs 85 billion through the floating of GOP Ijara Sukuk and Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) respectively.
In addition, the government has also raised Rs 295 billion through Market Treasury Bills during the first two months of the current fiscal year.
The public debt against the treasury bills, increased to Rs 9,564 billion from Rs 9,269 billion up to Aug 2023.
Meanwhile, the debt stock against the Naya Pakistan Certificates surged from Rs 142.7 billion to Rs 145.5 billion till August 2023.
The data shows that the external debt was increased by Rs 2143.7 billion to Rs 24.174 trillion from 22.031 trillion during the first two months of the current fiscal year.
According to the SBP, the external debt surged mainly due to depreciation of local currency against Pakistani rupee.
Apparently, the main contributing factor in increasing the size of external debt in terms of PKR was free fall of local currency against the US due to smuggling and ban on imports by successive governments.
According to the SBP data, the local currency fell by Rs19 against USD during the first two months of the current fiscal year.
The State Bank calculated Rs 286.39/USD on June 30, 2023 which was depreciated to Rs 305.61/USD in Aug 2023.
Report states that the federal govt has borrowed $2.18 billion from external sources excluding IMF tranche which was received during the period. Overall, the total debt was increased from $ 76.92 billion to $79.10 billion during the first two months of the current fiscal year.
Good article thanks for post
What was the total increase in Pakistan’s federal government debt during the first two months of the current fiscal year, as mentioned in the article?