Pakistan: Over USD 13 billion debt incurred in 10 months
May 25, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], May 25 : Pakistan's failure in handling its economy is an unpleasant result of its own actions as the country incurred a foreign debt of USD 13.033 billion from multiple financing sources in the first 10 months (July-April 2021-22) including USD 2.623 billion from foreign commercial banks for the entire fiscal year.
The Economic Affairs Division (EAD) on Monday released data which shows that the country received a hefty sum of USD 262.14 million from multiple financing sources in April 2022. However, no amount was borrowed from foreign commercial banks during the April band, Business Recorder reported.
As per the reports, the external inflows during the corresponding period (July-April) of the fiscal year 2020-21 were USD 10.195 billion including USD 3.246 billion from foreign commercial banks against the budgeted amount of USD 12.233 billion.
The government has budgeted estimates of foreign assistance of USD 14.088 billion for the current financial year, including USD 13.871 billion in loans and USD 217.44 million in grants from multilateral and bilateral sources, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The total receipt of loans constitutes USD 4.050 billion from multilateral, USD 485.97 million from bilateral, USD 2.623 billion from foreign commercial banks, USD 2.041 billion from issuance of bonds and USD 3 billion in time deposits from Saudi Arabia, the report added.
The non-project aid was USD 10.263 billion including USD 9.024 billion for budgetary support and project aid was USD 1.937 billion.
Among multilateral development partners, mainly the Asian Development Bank provided USD 1.454 billion and the World Bank disbursed USD 1.189 billion.
Meanwhile, China disbursed USD 153.30 million in the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year, the USA 64.32 million, Korea 4.81 million, the UK 16.01 million, and Germany USD 13.25 million and Saudi Arabia USD 201 million including USD 100 million in April for imports of oil products, Busines Recorder reported.
The World Bank has highlighted the structural weaknesses of Pakistan's economy which include low investment, low exports, and a low productivity growth cycle. Further, high domestic demand pressures and rising global commodity prices have given rise to double-digit inflation in the country.
Moreover, the growth momentum is not expected to pick up in Pakistan in the near future as a sharp spike in the import bill would also impact the Pakistani Rupee adversely.
