Pakistan’s Public Debt Increases by Rs. 9.45 Trillion in One Year

The total public debt stock of the federal government increased by 22.8 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in December 2022 as compared to the same month of the last fiscal year.

According to the monthly data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the debt stock increased to Rs. 50.996 trillion in December 2022 as compared to Rs. 41.543 trillion in December 2021, an increase of Rs. 9.453 trillion.

Central government debt increased to PKR 51.0trn (+0.2% or PKR 92bn) as of Dec'22 compared with PKR 50.9trn in Nov’22. On YoY basis it also went up by PKR 9.5trn (+22.8% YoY).@GovtofPakistan @StateBank_Pak #SBP #Pakistan #Economy #AHL pic.twitter.com/xjvvmUZPCR

— Arif Habib Limited (@ArifHabibLtd) February 16, 2023

The data shows that the domestic debt of the central government increased by 23 percent from Rs. 26.746 trillion to Rs. 33.116 trillion during the period.

Out of total domestic debt, the long-term public debt increased from Rs. 21.064 trillion to Rs. 26.912 trillion and the stock of short-term debt increased from Rs. 5.644 trillion to Rs. 6.156 trillion during the last year.

Out of the total long-term debt, the government raised Rs. 6.36 trillion through Federal Government Bonds including Pakistan investment bonds and GOP Ijara Sukuk and Bai-Muajjal of Sukuk during the last year. The total debt stock of Federal Government Bonds increased from Rs. 16.602 trillion to Rs. 22.970 trillion. The government raised Rs. 10 billion through issuing of Prize Bonds in one year.

The public debt remained at the same level of Rs. 475 billion in terms of SBP’s on-lending to GOP against SDRs allocation. The unfunded debt decreased to Rs. 3,073 billion from Rs. 3,604 billion. Foreign currency loans jumped to Rs. 10 billion from Rs. 8 billion during the period.

The report shows that the external debt of the central government increased to Rs. 17.880 trillion from Rs 14.796 trillion during the period, registering an increase of 20.8 percent. The data shows that the currency exchange rate increased by Rs. 50 to Rs. 226.47 during the last year.