ISLAMABAD: Private sector credit expanded by Rs 1.46 trillion (14.8 percent) during fiscal year 2025-26, reaching Rs 11.38 trillion-the strongest annual increase in four years.
Advisor to the Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad took to X while saying that business credit increased by Rs 1.18 trillion (14.0 percent), accounting for over 80 percent of the overall increase in private sector credit, reflecting rising financing for productive economic activity.
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He said nearly 89 percent of the increase in private-sector business credit was concentrated in three productive sectors: Manufacturing 56 percent, Wholesale & Retail Trade 18 percent and Agriculture 15 percent.
Manufacturing alone accounted for Rs 657 billion of new credit, highlighting broad-based industrial expansion, while strong financing to trade and agriculture points to rising production, commerce and investment across the economy.
He said that the Private-sector credit is one of the clearest leading indicators of economic expansion. Businesses borrow to invest, expand capacity, modernize operations and prepare for future demand—not merely to sustain existing operations. The broad-based increase in financing across Pakistan’s productive sectors reflects strengthening business confidence, rising private investment, and the positive impact of macroeconomic stability, easing financial conditions and ongoing structural reforms.
The composition of credit growth matters as much as its size. Financing is increasingly flowing towards productive sectors that expand capacity, strengthen competitiveness and support Pakistan’s transition towards a private sector-led, investment-driven, export-oriented and sustainable growth model, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026