Aug 2018 to Dec 2021: PTI govt procures $42.748bn foreign loans; $32.7bn repaid

ISLAMABAD: The PTI government procured $42.748 billion foreign loans during its tenure (August 2018 to December 2021) and repaid $32.7 billion (including repayment of short term debt borrowed by the Khan Administration) with the government net borrowing of over $10 billion.

This was revealed in the data compiled by the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and exclusively available with Business Recorder.

The government borrowed around $13 billion from multiple external financing sources during the calendar year 2021 including $4.5 billion from foreign commercial banks (33 percent), taking the country’s total external debt and liabilities to nearly $130 billion.

According to the EAD data, the government paid $8.535 billion during the calendar year 2021 on account of debt servicing of external public loans - principle payment of $7.156 billion and interest payment of $1.379 billion. The government received $1.041 billion from issuance of bonds in 2021 and borrowed $4.3 billion from foreign commercial banks during the calendar year 2021which includes $971.20 million from SCB (London), $355.50 million from Suisse AG, UBL and ABL, one billion dollars from China Development Bank, $800 million from ICBC China, $350 million from Ajman Bank and $720 million from Dubai Bank.

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Asian Development Bank (ADB) disbursed $1.2 billion, World Bank disbursed $2.5 billion and Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) $80.5 million during calendar year 2021.

China disbursed $181.87 million, USA $65.5 million and France $15 million during the calendar year 2021.

According to the SBP data, the country’s outstanding debt and liabilities were $117.115 billion by December 31, 2020, (including the 3 billion dollars deposited by Saudi Arabia) which rose to $127.023 by end September 2021. However, by adding the borrowing taken during the three months i.e. October, November and December 2021, the outstanding debt and liabilities are close to $130 billion.

Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities were $95.237 billion by end June 2018, two months before the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government took over power. The EAD data also revealed that the country borrowed $38.868 billion during 2018-19 to 2020-21 from external financing sources and paid $29.041 billion on account of principle and interest during this period with net transfer of $9.827 billion.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021