FY2020-21: Foreign debt of $14.282bn incurred from multiple sources: EAD

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan incurred foreign debt of $14.282 billion from multiple financing sources during fiscal year 2020-21 including $4.721 billion from foreign commercial banks (33 percent) against the total budgeted external loans of $12.233 billion.

The Economic Affairs Division (EAD) data, released on Monday, shows that in June 2021, the country received $2.115 billion external inflows from multiple financing sources including $1.112 billion (53 percent) from foreign commercial banks.

According to the data, public grants and loans stood at $3.044 billion during 2020-21, while publicly guaranteed stood $1.238 billion during the fiscal year 2020-21.

In the corresponding period (July-June) of fiscal year 2019-20, the external inflows were $10.662 billion against the budgeted amount of $12.958 billion.

The data shows that project aid remained $1.820 billion, while non-project aid was $11.223 billion during the fiscal year 2020-21.

The government borrowed $4.721 billion from foreign commercial banks, $2.5 billion from bonds issuance, while $1 billion was received as safe deposits from China.

The government had budgeted $1 billion under the head of Saudi oil facility; however, no amount was received during the fiscal year 2020-21.

According to the data, the government procured $4.721 billion loans from foreign commercial banks during 2020-21, including $323.62 million from Ajman Bank, $712.52 million from the Standard Chartered Bank (London) including $112.51 million in June, $815.11 million from Dubai Bank, $200 million were received from the consortium-led by Suisse AG, UBL, and ABL, $370 million from Emirates NBD, $1.3 billion from the ICBC, China, and $1 billion from China Development Bank, which were received in June 2021.

The bilateral and multilateral development partners disbursed $4.823 billion during the period under review (July-June) 2020-21 against the budgeted estimate of $5.811 billion for 2020-21.

Among the multilateral development partners, the Asian Development Bank provided $1.368 billion against the budgeted estimates of $1.470 billion followed by the World Bank's $2.035 billion against the budgeted estimate of $2.257 billion and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) $252.11 million.

While from bilateral sources, France, the USA, and China provided $41.53 million, $108.48 million, and $203.92 million, respectively.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021