The total public debt stock of the federal government increased by 32.1 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in May 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. 58.962 trillion in May 2023 as compared to Rs. 44.641 trillion in May 2022, an increase of Rs. 14.321 trillion.
The data shows that the domestic debt of the central government increased by 27.6 percent from Rs. 29.047 trillion to Rs. 37.054 trillion during the period.
Out of total domestic debt, the long-term public debt increased from Rs. 23.367 trillion to Rs. 29.481 trillion and the stock of short-term debt increased from Rs. 5.649 trillion to Rs. 7.434 trillion during the last year.
Out of the total long-term debt, the government raised Rs. 6.1 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. 19.110 trillion to Rs. 25.303 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. 2,935 billion from Rs. 3,395 billion. Foreign currency loans increased to Rs. 383 billion from Rs. 8 billion during the period.
The report shows that the external debt of the central government increased to Rs. 21.908 trillion from Rs 15.594 trillion during the period, registering an increase of 40.5 percent.
I think borrow loan not any permanent solution for Pakistani economy. Yes, this is short term solution to standby economy but Long term they are face many issues. So, I think government should want to focus on Businesses that increase exports to generate revenue in Dollar this thing is boost up economy.