Govt Borrows Rs114.3bn Debt in a Week

The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs114.25 billion during the week ended May 17, 2024, which brings its total net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year 2024 to Rs5.49 trillion, according to the central bank's weekly estimates.

Government borrowings for the current fiscal year have consistently remained higher in comparison to previous years.

The government sector borrowings are divided into three broad categories based on the purpose of loan which are budgetary support, commodity operations, and others.

Split three ways between these broad categories, the weekly net borrowing for budgetary support was Rs91.1bn, while the borrowing for commodity operations stood at Rs23.33bn.

Meanwhile, a total of Rs176.35m was retired off others during the week.

Accordingly, this takes the cumulative borrowing for the current fiscal year 2024 to Rs5.66 trillion for budgetary support, Rs162.53bn retirement off Commodity Operations, and Rs3.29bn retirement off others.

The two biggest source of financing for budgetary support are the State Bank of Pakistan and the Scheduled Banks.

This fiscal year, the government has paid off a net sum of Rs986.45bn to the central bank, out of which the Federal Government retired Rs479.21bn whereas, the Provincial Government retired Rs470.5bn, AJK Government retired Rs38.22bn, and the GB Government borrowed Rs1.48bn.

On the other hand, the Scheduled Banks have lent out a net total of Rs6.64tr out of which the Federal Government borrowed Rs6.8tr while the Provincial Government retired Rs151.49bn.