The total public debt stock of the federal government increased by 34.1 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in April 2023 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. 58.599 trillion in April 2023 as compared to Rs. 43.705 trillion in April 2022, an increase of Rs. 14.894 trillion.
The data shows that the domestic debt of the central government increased by 26.4 percent from Rs. 28.914 trillion to Rs. 36.549 trillion during the period.
Out of total domestic debt, the long-term public debt increased from Rs. 23.301 trillion to Rs. 29.195 trillion and the stock of short-term debt increased from Rs. 5.578 trillion to Rs. 7.215 trillion during the last year.
Out of the total long-term debt, the government raised Rs. 6 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. 18.985 trillion to Rs. 24.992 trillion. The government raised Rs. 8 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. 2,962 billion from Rs. 3,457 billion. Foreign currency loans jumped to Rs. 381 billion from Rs. 8 billion during the period.
The report shows that the external debt of the central government increased to Rs. 22.050 trillion from Rs 14.791 trillion during the period, registering an increase of 49.1 percent.
= 193 BILLION DOLLAR