The total public debt stock of the federal government increased by 32.8 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in March 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. 57.123 trillion in March 2023 as compared to Rs. 43.013 trillion in March 2022, an increase of Rs. 14.110 trillion.

Courtesy: Arif Habib Limited

The data shows that the domestic debt of the central government increased by 24.9 percent from Rs. 35.076 trillion to Rs. 28.077 trillion during the period.

Out of total domestic debt, the long-term public debt increased from Rs. 22.797 trillion to Rs. 28.641 trillion and the stock of short-term debt increased from Rs. 5.242 trillion to Rs. 6.295 trillion during the last year.

Out of the total long-term debt, the government raised Rs. 6.159 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. 18.330 trillion to Rs. 24.489 trillion. The government raised Rs. 9 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. 2,998 billion from Rs. 3,609 billion. Foreign currency loans jumped to Rs. 296 billion from Rs. 8 billion during the period, an increase of 3,600 percent.

The report shows that the external debt of the central government increased to Rs. 22.047 trillion from Rs 14.936 trillion during the period, registering an increase of 47.6 percent.

Source: Pro Pakistani