According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the entire amount of the central government’s debt reached Rs58.6 trillion at the end of April on a year-on-year basis, reflecting a growth of 34.1 percent over the previous year’s level.
It should come as no surprise that this pattern has emerged given that the government has been choosing for ever-increasing levels of borrowing in the face of a weakening currency and its inability to boost revenue collection through broadening the tax base.
Due to rising interest rates and currency devaluation, Pakistan’s debt exceeds Rs58tr.
This is a month-on-month increase of 2.6 percentage points, as indicated by the most recent data that was made public by the central bank on Monday.
During the first ten months of the fiscal year 2022-23, the total amount of domestic debt reached Rs36.5tr, while the total amount of external debt accounted for reached Rs22tr.
These figures reflect the debt owed to local and foreign creditors, respectively. This indicates that the proportion of domestic debt amounts to 62.3 percent, while the proportion of external debt amounts to 37.6 percent.
More information can be found here: Centre’s debt stocks increase to unprecedented Rs57 trillion by the end of March: SBP
When the domestic debt was broken down into its component parts, it was discovered that the federal government bonds made up the greatest portion.
These bonds were responsible for roughly 25 trillion rupees’ worth of loans. Other contributors include short-term loans totaling Rs.7.2tr and unfunded debt of Rs.2.9tr, the latter of which includes money borrowed through National Savings Schemes.
While the growth in the stock of short-term loans stayed the same at 29.4 percent, the amount of money collected through federal government bonds increased by 31.6 percent from a year ago.
The worrying numbers are a reflection of the protracted balance-of-payments crisis that the country is experiencing at a time when domestic debt servicing has become an enormous issue as a result of extraordinary interest rate rises and record-high inflation.