The total public debt stock of the federal government increased by 29 percent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in August 2023 as compared to the same month of the last year.

According to the monthly data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the debt stock increased to Rs. 63.996 trillion in August 2023 as compared to Rs. 49.572 trillion in August 2022, an increase of Rs. 14.394 trillion.

On a month-on-month basis, the total public debt stock of the federal government increased by Rs. 2.22 trillion from Rs. 61.748 trillion recorded in July 2023.

The data shows that the domestic debt of the central government increased by 23.8 percent from Rs. 32.153 trillion in August 2022 to Rs. 39.792 trillion in August 2023.

Out of total domestic debt, the long-term public debt increased from Rs. 24.562 trillion to Rs. 30.013 trillion and the stock of short-term debt increased from Rs. 7.484 trillion to Rs. 9.633 trillion during the last year.

Out of the total long-term debt, the government raised Rs. 5.32 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. 20.478 trillion in August 2022 to Rs. 25.810 trillion in August 2023. The government raised Rs. 6 billion through the issuing of Prize Bonds in one year.

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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. 2,933 billion from Rs. 3,220 billion. Foreign currency loans jumped to Rs. 410 billion from Rs. 9 billion during the period.

The report shows that the external debt of the central government increased to Rs. 24.175 trillion from Rs 17.419 trillion during the period, registering an increase of 39 percent.

Source: Pro Pakistani